You may have noticed that Sporty Girl Books blog includes tabs with booklists for middle grade and young adult readers. However, if you’ve seen some of the sportiest girls out there, you know that they start when they are knee-high to a grasshopper and can hardly fit their sports equipment.
(When my kiddos were this big we called soccer, magnet ball and had fun counting how many times a player took the ball from someone on their own team.)
With the right safety and inspiration, some young players grow into healthy young women with a life-long love of sport, while others become experienced and technically savvy athletes. Either way, below is a list of picture books that will inspire sports and history lovers young and old, male and female.
About this list:
- This list is not at all exhaustive. While I was pleased to find picture books about African-American athletes along side Caucasian athletes, it is clear that there are still underrepresented groups including Latinas, Asian-Americans, "out" gay athletes, athletes who identify as Muslim or Jewish and many others. I would love to hear other suggestions from our readers in the comments!
- The books are listed by author’s last name. The MLA citations and summaries are from WorldCat.org
- Many of the books that I’ve listed were chosen because they have won a variety of awards or been on well-known lists. Some have shown up on the relatively new (2002) ALA Amelia Bloomer Book list that showcases feminist books for young readers. Read more here. http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/amelia-bloomer-book-list
- Except Mia Hamm's book, these are picture book biographies.
- Yes, there are TWO books about Alice Coachman. Give them a look and tell us what you think!
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Adler, David A, and Terry Widener.
America's Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle. San Diego: Harcourt, 2000. Print.
Describes the life and accomplishments of Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel and a figure in the early women's rights movement.
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Corey, Shana, and Ed Fotheringham.
Mermaid Queen: The Spectacular True Story of Annette Kellerman, Who Swam Her Way to Fame, Fortune, & Swimsuit History! New York: Scholastic Press, 2009. Print.
As a child growing up in Australia, Annette Kellerman was a frail ugly duckling who dreamed of becoming a graceful ballerina. With courage and determination, she confronted a crippling illness to become an internationally known record-setting athlete who revolutionized the sport of swimming for women, a movie star who invented water ballet, and a fashion revolutionary who modernized the swimsuit.
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Corey, Shana, Rebecca Gibbon, and Marijka Kostiw.
Players in Pigtails. New York: Scholastic Press, 2003. Print.
Katie Casey, a fictional character, helps start the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which gave women the opportunity to play professional baseball while America was involved in World War II.
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Deans, Karen, and Elbrite Brown.
Playing to Win: The Story of Althea Gibson. New York: Holiday House, 2007. Print.
Growing up in Harlem, Althea Gibson was heading down the wrong path until she found her calling. She went on to become the first African American women to be ranked as the number one woman tennis player in the world.
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Hamm, Mia, and Carol Thompson.
Winners Never Quit! New York: HaperCollns, 2004. Print.
Shows that being a team player is more important than winning or losing a game.
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Hopkinson, Deborah, and Terry Widener.
Girl Wonder: A Baseball Story in Nine Innings. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2003. Print.
In the early 1900s, Alta Weiss, a young woman who knows from an early age that she loves baseball, finds a way to show that she can play, even though she is a girl.
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Krull, Kathleen, and David Diaz.
Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1996. Print.
A biography of the African-American woman who overcame crippling polio as a child to become the first woman to win three gold medals in track in a single Olympics.
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Lang, Heather, and Floyd Cooper.
Queen of the Track: Alice Coachman, Olympic High-Jump Champion. Honesdale, Pa: Boyds Mills Press, 2012. Print.
Tells the story of Alice Coachman, an athlete from rural Georgia who made history as the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in 1948.
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Macy, Sue, and Matt Collins.
Basketball Belles: How Two Teams and One Scrappy Player Put Women's Hoops on the Map. New York: Holiday House, 2011. Print.
Raised on a cattle ranch, Agnes Morley was sent to Stanford University to learn to be a lady. Yet in no time she exchanged her breeches and spurs for bloomers and a basketball; and in April 1896 she made history. In a heart-pounding game against the University of California at Berkeley, Agnes led her team to victory in the first-ever intercollegiate women's basketball game, earning national attention and putting women's basketball on the map.
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Malaspina, Ann, and Eric Velasquez.
Touch the Sky: Alice Coachman, Olympic High Jumper. Chicago, Ill: Albert Whitman, 2012. Print.
A biography of the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal, from her childhood in segregated Albany, Georgia, in the 1930s, through her recognition at the 1996 Olympics as one of the hundred best athletes in Olympic history. Includes bibliographical references.
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Rosenstock, Barbara, and Scott Dawson.
Fearless: The Story of Racing Legend Louise Smith. New York: Dutton Children's Books, 2010. Print.
Introduces the life of stock car racer Louise Smith, from her first ride behind the wheel of her father's Ford to her thrilling stock car races across the country during the 1950s.
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Vernick, Audrey.
She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. Print.
Effa always loved baseball. As a young woman, she would go to Yankee Stadium just to see Babe Ruth's mighty swing. But she never dreamed she would someday own a baseball team. Or be the first and only woman ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. From her childhood in Philadelphia to her groundbreaking role as business manager and owner of the Newark Eagles, Effa Manley always fought for what was right. And she always swung for the fences.
