Not Playing By the Rules : 21 Female Athletes Who Changed Sports by Lesa Cline-Ransome - ADVISABLE

Not Playing By the Rules : 21 Female Athletes Who Changed Sports by Lesa Cline-Ransome, 48 pages. NON-FICTION Penguin Random House, 2020. $19.

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ADVISABLE 

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE 

Ever since Constance Applebee brought field hockey for women to Harvard in 1901, athletic women have been blazing trails, being the first to break into men only sports, and crossing age, race and ability barriers. Each athlete has a 2 page spread - a full page picture with a inspirational quote, and a full page bio/historical contribution. Like Ethelda Bleibtrey who was arrested twice for swimming nude (because she took off her stockings to swim); Nadia Comaneci, first to receive a perfect score in Olympic Gymnastics; Joy Johnson who started running marathons after she retired and continued until age 86; Mia Hamm, soccer sensation; and Ibtihaj Muhammad - first Muslim American to wear hijab while competing for the US Olympic team.

 I really liked this collected biography - it is a great spring board to build interest in an individual and inspire research to learn more about them. I loved the quotes - it reminded me of the teen magazines of the 70s where you could take out the page and put it on your wall. The text is engaging with lots of good information about each woman. Includes an appendix with "just a little bit more" about each athlete.

Lisa Librarian