Three Sporty Girl Books on the Connecticut Nutmeg Lists

I'm so excited to see that all three 2017 Connecticut Nutmeg Award Lists have sporty girl books. We have spoken about Roller Girl (Immediate List)  on this blog before, so today I'm going to introduce you to Queen of the Diamond (Elementary List) and A Time to Dance (Teen List). Both books are about girls that never let anyone stop them from following their dreams.

Queen of the Diamond is the true story of Lizzie Murphy.

Here's the blurb from IndieBound:
Lizzie Murphy was good at baseball. In fact, she was better than most of the boys. But she was born in 1900, and back then baseball was not a game for girls. Lizzie practiced with her brother anyway, and then she talked her way onto the local boys' team, first as a batboy, then as a player. Everyone was impressed by her hard catches and fast pitches. By the time she turned fifteen, she was playing for two different amateur boys' teams. When she turned eighteen, Lizzie did something else that women weren't supposed to do: she signed up with a professional baseball team, determined to earn her living playing the game.


Want to learn more about Lizzie Murphy? Here are some great articles about her baseball experience. 

Science of Baseball: Lizzie Murphy
Today I Found Out

I read A Time to Dance this summer and fell in love with this book.

Here's the blurb from IndieBound:
Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who's grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.

Good luck to all three sporty girl books. If you are a kid in Connecticut, make sure to read your Nutmeg list so you can vote for your favorite in April!