New Sporty Girl Books Blogger Wanted

Sporty Girl Books is looking for a new contributor! Our goal at SPORTY GIRL BOOKS is to give all girls the chance to love, watch, play, read, and write about any sport that interests them. We look forward to the day when the words, "You play like a girl," is the biggest compliment anyone can receive.

If you are a writer with an interest in athletics and children's books, we'd love for you to apply. Send an email to Sporty Girl Books founder Stacy Mozer that discusses why you'd like to blog for Sporty Girl Books and let us know why you are qualified. Paste in a sample Sporty Girl Books blog post into your email: a book review, an industry/author interview, or an athlete interview. Stay positive. We'll be choosing a new blogger by the end of the year and would love your submission!

Ice-Skating Lessons: Dream Big, Get Back Up When You Fall, Celebrate Life

By Brenda Barrera

Flipping through TV channels this past weekend I caught some of the Progressive Skate America, a good preview of the 2017 U.S. Nationals coming up on January 14-22 in Kansas City. Then yesterday, I came across this video interview with Olympic gold medalist and beloved figure skating commentator, Scott Hamilton, who is now battling his third brain tumor.  As a longtime fan, my heart sank.  His courage and matter-of-fact demeanor are not surprising to anyone who has followed his career.

In the interview, he references fellow Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi, and they show a clip from the 1991 U. S. Figure Skating Championships where she took a hard fall at the beginning of her program and immediately got up, continued her routine, and finished with a joyful smile. Hamilton noted the life lesson which he shares with beginner ice-skaters: you will fall and make mistakes, but the more times you get up, the stronger you will be for each future obstacle.

Since retiring from the sport, Yamaguchi has added children’s book writer to her impressive resume, beginning with her delightful picture book, DREAM BIG LITTLE PIG about Poppy the Pig who discovers not every activity (ballet, singing) is going to be her calling yet she follows her bliss and pursues ice-skating, which leads to mastering jumps and spins. She attracts a huge fan club and even makes the cover of the “New Pork Times.”

Life obstacles may sideline us, and we may stumble while attempting to twirl through unforeseen circumstances, but as Hamilton shares, it’s how many times you get up that makes you stronger. He chooses to celebrate life. Yamaguchi’s Poppy reminds us to dream big, never to give up, listen to your personal fans (family and friends who believe in you) and keep pursuing your passions.

Beautiful by Stacy McAnulty

I've been lucky to be able to know prolific author Stacy McAnulty. She's the author of many books for children, but this is the book that has my heart. This is the book, and the reminder, that picture books are for ALL ages. This book was for me. This book was for my 11-year-old daughter on her birthday. We both cried when I read it to her. I make the world beautiful. My daughter makes the world beautiful. Each of you, readers, make the world beautiful. I'm so grateful for Stacy and her powerful book. Below I've included excerpts from her newsletter. I hope you'll get your hands on BEAUTIFUL and read it to all the females, old and young, in your life. "BEAUTIFUL breaks barriers by showing girls free to be themselves: splashing in mud, conducting science experiments, and shooting baskets. This book will encourage all girls to embrace who they are and realize their endless potential."

Beautiful: Simple Yet Complicated Beautiful (written by me and illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff) is a book of few words. But the topic of beauty and how it impacts girls is incredibly complicated. My editor Lisa wrote me a four-page letter while we were revising this book, and I sent her back the polished manuscript and an essay. I believe it's the first time she'd ever received an essay with a picture book manuscript. I'd love to share with you some of the things Lisa and I learned while creating this book. (Don't worry. It's not the full essay.) We compliment little girls on their looks and not other strengths. I've noticed that I do this often. Meeting a young girl, I might say, "You're so cute," or "I love your hair." ... I need to stop making appearances the first part of the conversation. Compliments are great, but I now try to look deeper. The mirror is different for everyone. Women often use the mirror to study flaws: wrinkles, gray hairs, bags under the eyes... Young children can consider a mirror a toy and enjoy making goofy faces or trying to outwit their reflection. Is there a way to keep young girls from seeing the mirror as a tool for self-criticism? My definition of beauty. My editor asked me to create a definition for this book. What did I want to convey? After reading countless articles, blog posts, and research, this is my definition of what it means to be BEAUTIFUL. True beauty is a confidence found in what you do and how you feel. When a girl is doing something kind or challenging or fun, her inner beauty overwhelms her exterior, no matter what she wears or how her hair looks. When a girl feels empowered or strong or smart, the same thing happens.

Learn more about BEAUTIFUL and Stacy McAnulty here

Book Review: Level the Playing Field

I am always looking for interesting nonfiction for my third grade classroom so I was very excited to see this new book for kids about the past, present, and future of women's pro sports.

Here's the blurb from IndieBound:

The experience of being a professional athlete is very different for men and women. While men's pro sports command throngs of fans, media attention, and money, many of the world's top professional female athletes aren t valued or recognized equally for their talent even though female athletes prove time and time again that they have all the skill, drama, and rivalries of their male counterparts. 
Level the Playing Field examines the root of these issues by taking readers through the history of women's pro sports, exploring how far we have come in a relatively short time and exposing what ground is left to gain. The book provides first-person insight through exciting interviews with professional female athletes, including Canadian hockey player Cassie Campbell, American MMA fighter Miesha Tate, and WNBA star Elena Delle Donne. Along the way, author and sports journalist Kristina Rutherford covers important topics like opportunity, female role models, and stereotypes. Drawing on examples from a wide range of sports, and complete with sidebars, photographs, sources, and an index, this is an informative and authoritative book that makes an important contribution to the movement for women's acceptance in professional sport. 

I enjoyed many things about this book. It had a clear and concise way of explaining the history and current experience of women in sports. The layout was easy to follow and there was a good mix of sports (even though I would have loved to see more baseball). Throughout the book were interviews with sports stars, which give a first hand look at the experience. Last, I liked that even when discussing the difficulties and inequities, the book still has a very positive outlook and makes sure to detail all the strides that have been made. Overall, I think this book is a perfect addition to any classroom or school library.

My Banned Books Week Pick: ATHLETIC SHORTS by Chris Crutcher

By Brenda Barrera

September 25 through October 1, 2016 marks Banned Books Week, a celebration of the freedom to read and an opportunity to create awareness about the issues of book censorship and the importance of our first amendment. Yep, it’s 2016, and it's hard to believe but there are still challenges to have books removed from libraries and schools. Here’s a statistic from the American Library Association: more than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982 when Banned Books Week was launched.

It still boggles my mind when I see the long list of award-winning titles from classics to contemporary bestsellers on lists of Banned Books. When I share these lists with my bibliophile friends they are typically aghast. I wondered if there were any sports-related titles and noticed on the “100 most frequently challenged books: 1990-1999” down at #63 was a young adult (YA) title: ATHLETIC SHORTS by Chris Crutcher.

Crutcher’s body of work is outstanding and typically involves male athletes and sports, but the themes are universal and relevant to sporty girls, too. I downloaded a copy of ATHLETIC SHORTS and re-read a story featuring a female athlete, “The Other Pin.” The main characters are from Crutcher’s book, THE CRAZY HORSE ELECTRIC GAME. In this short story, Petey Shropshrire is a high school wrestler who is goaded by a friend into agreeing to wrestle an opponent no one else wants to take on, Chris Byers. Why? We learn a few pages into the story that Chris is not a typical competitor. Chris is a girl. She developed an interest in wrestling because her older brothers were state champions. In fact, she learned takedowns before she was in kindergarten and by middle school was recruited to join the boy's team. Petey and Chris discover something else they  have in common: both have faced ridicule for being the one to wrestle a girl and a girl who  has faced ridicule for being a wrestler and not afraid to take on a boy. I'm not sure if I agree with the ending and their match, but it is an interesting story.

While “The Other Pin” may not be the story that provokes challenges in this six-story collection, here’s something to think about: if ATHLETIC SHORTS were to be removed from a library book shelf or recommended reading list, how many girls who are wrestlers or who are interested in wrestling and want to read about someone like themselves, would be deprived of this opportunity? Something to reflect upon during Banned Books Week, as when we celebrate free expression and the freedom to read.

Additional Information:

ALA Banned Books Week (www.ala.org/bbooks/bannedbooksweek)

and (www.bannedbooksweek.org)

Chris Crutcher video (on censorship)

Interesting Article and Book on Title IX

"Before Title IX, one in 27 girls played sports. Today that number is two in five. While we still have far to go before every girl has equal access to sports, especially girls of color, it is clear that we are making headway. This summer at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the world watched as woman after woman broke barriers, shattered records and won titles across a multitude of sports."

Now that the Olympics are over, it would be easy to forget all of the amazing female athletes featured over the summer. The quote above is from an article shared on the She Network on the role of Title IX and female athletes in America.

The article, called "Title IX and The Rise of Female Athletes in America,"  connects to a number of other articles about female athletes. In one from the LA Times, it states, “It’s not perfect,” swimmer DiRado said. “But the more girls can grow up and watch Olympics like this, knowing they’re just as good as the men’s teams, it’s goes a long way.’’

It continues, "Can it carry over to an increase in U.S. women’s sports popularity during non-Olympic years? So far, no good. The only stable women’s pro sports league is the WNBA, but that basketball league has benefited from the support of the powerful NBA."

So the fight for increased attention on women's sports continues, but things continue moving in the right direction.

For more about the role of Title IX, check out this book:

Valuable Life Lessons per The Road Less Taken by Kathryn Bertine

By Brenda Barrera

Kathryn Bertine might not be a household name, but if you support girls + sports + books, she’s someone to know. Not only is Bertine a professional cyclist, but she has competed at a professional level in: ice-skating, triathlon, and rowing. In addition to being a versatile athlete, she’s also an activist – fighting for equality on and off the playing field. But wait . . . she’s also a documentary filmmaker capturing the “passion, pitfalls, and power of women’s professional cycling” in her documentary film, “Half the Road.” And, oh yeah, add author of two books, AS GOOD AS GOLD (2010) and THE ROAD LESS TAKEN: LESSONS FROM A LIFE SPENT CYCLING (2014).

I was fortunate to meet Bertine at a screening of her documentary, “Half the Road” at the College of William & Mary a few years ago and treasure my autographed copy of THE ROAD LESS TAKEN. Today marks the start of September and that means many teachers and students are trading their flip-flops for laced up shoes and heading to the classroom instead of the seashore. Here’s a gentle reminder: settling down with a good book doesn’t have to end with summer vacation.

THE ROAD LESS TAKEN is a thoughtful, provocative collection of essays and espnW features that are short, making for an easy read. Bertine shares lessons gleaned from her years as a professional cyclist, a tough existence with meager pay; where the stresses of finding a homestay and couch to sleep on in a foreign country are typical for female professional cyclists. Many chapters revolve around the sport of cycling and trying to qualify for a spot at the Olympic games, but several are about personal, everyday experience that young adult readers and older will enjoy.

A few of my favorite chapters include the humorous, “A Cyclists Letter to Santa,” and a thoughtful reflection on Lance Armstrong in, “The Guy in Yellow” where I found myself nodding in agreement. How is it possible to feel so much dislike and yet empathy for someone who is so polarizing? She shares her perspective as a cyclist, a female cyclist, a journalist, and a person and sums it up: he is a flawed human being. I agree.

You don’t have to squeeze into spandex bike shorts and maneuver cobblestones to appreciate the moving chapter, “The Bonus Wife,” which shares how she fell in love with her husband, newly widowed and the treatment by mutual friends that led her to study how society deals with grief. Many chapters explore aspects of inequality in sport, but an inspirational article on retired NBA player, Adonal Foyle, teaching ‘growl power’ to young girls – that is, take charge, be confident, and go after what you want. 

Bertine reveals her vulnerabilities alongside unwavering passion for sport, equality, and tackling life’s many hills. There’s plenty of ‘growl power’ in these pages to inspire readers to attack athletic challenges and move beyond everyday obstacles.

For more information:

Kathryn Bertine website: www.kathrynbertine.com

Half the Road trailer