A welcome, though flawed, introduction to the history of girls and athletics.
Girls in sports!
This cheerfully illustrated survey of efforts to make women’s athletics socially acceptable and financially supported provides snippets of information and visually appealing portrayals of female barrier-breakers over time. The tone is a bit naïve—it assumes that readers will be shocked by the sexism of yesteryear—and arbitrary-feeling italicized phrases (“And never, ever sweat”; “Game on!”) interrupt the flow of the text. It’s light on diversity: While ancient and modern Greece (1896 Olympic marathoner Melpomene) are mentioned, the focus is almost entirely on white Americans (Frances Willard, Senda Berenson Abbot, Eleanora Sears, Gertrude Ederle, Margaret Gisolo, Donna de Varona, Maria Pepe), with only brief mentions of women of color Althea Gibson, Shirley Chisholm, and Patsy Mink—although African-American athletes are featured in the timeline, and a multiracial cast of girls are shown in sports today. The somewhat simplified ending holds that through Title IX, girls now receive equal treatment in athletics, ignoring the world outside of the United States as well as the fact that boys’ sports may still receive preference within it. Still, there is nothing similar for this age group, and readers will be interested in the progress of women in sports and drawn in by the excitement of the passage of Title IX.
A welcome, though flawed, introduction to the history of girls and athletics. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-58089-747-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston...
A memorable, lyrical reverse-chronological walk through the life of an American icon.
In free verse, Cline-Ransome narrates the life of Harriet Tubman, starting and ending with a train ride Tubman takes as an old woman. “But before wrinkles formed / and her eyes failed,” Tubman could walk tirelessly under a starlit sky. Cline-Ransome then describes the array of roles Tubman played throughout her life, including suffragist, abolitionist, Union spy, and conductor on the Underground Railroad. By framing the story around a literal train ride, the Ransomes juxtapose the privilege of traveling by rail against Harriet’s earlier modes of travel, when she repeatedly ran for her life. Racism still abounds, however, for she rides in a segregated train. While the text introduces readers to the details of Tubman’s life, Ransome’s use of watercolor—such a striking departure from his oil illustrations in many of his other picture books—reveals Tubman’s humanity, determination, drive, and hope. Ransome’s lavishly detailed and expansive double-page spreads situate young readers in each time and place as the text takes them further into the past.
A picture book more than worthy of sharing the shelf with Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney’s Minty (1996) and Carole Boston Weatherford and Kadir Nelson’s Moses (2006). (Picture book/biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2047-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
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