Play Like a Girl: A Celebration of Women in Sports (Henry Holt Young Readers) [Hardcover]

Sue Macy (Author), Jane Gottesman (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Series: Henry Holt Young Readers

It used to be that women and girls had to fight just to get a chance to compete on a track, or a soccer field, or basketball court. Now, female athletes are shattering the records in every sport and having a great time doing it. But where are the pictures of these great sportswomen, where are the words that describe their experiences?

Here. Play Like a Girl is a labor of love from two women who are devoted to women's sports. Together, they searched through thousands of photographs and read hundreds of books to find the perfect match of words and images to celebrate today's female athletes. Their book is an inspiring affirmation for every girl who plays a sport, and every one who would like to.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5 Up-This photographic celebration of women in sport captures professional, college, Olympic, and amateur athletes doing what they love best. Excellent-quality, full- and double-page action photographs are accompanied by excerpts from magazine articles, short stories, and fiction and nonfiction books. Macy and Gottesman include well-chosen quotes from athletes, coaches, and writers. For example, the repeated image of tennis champion Martina Navratilova hitting a smash shot serves as the backdrop for Chris Evert's description of "the zone" of euphoric perfection an athlete sometimes achieves. Another photo shows an Olympic pole-vaulter in mid-leap with a poetic description of sailing into the sky from Ellen Gilchrist's In the Land of Dreamy Dreams (Little, Brown, 1985). This inspirational book demonstrates that the phrase "you play like a girl" is high praise indeed.
Kate Kohlbeck, Randall School, Waukesha, WI
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Play Like a Girl is a must gift for your favorite sportsgirl or sportswoman...An incredible collection of inspirational and motivational words and images...This is a special book indeed." --Donna Lopiano, Executive Director, Women's Sports Foundation

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) (September 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805060715
• ISBN-13: 978-0805060713
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,782,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Pretty Weak Celebration, November 28, 2001

By 

Stanley W. Johnson (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Play Like a Girl: A Celebration of Women in Sports (Henry Holt Young Readers) (Hardcover)

We wanted this book as a gift for a grand daughter who is fast becoming a far better than average competitive athlete herself. As a family we have celebrated her accomplishments and thought this work would underline and reinforce the importance of what she is doing.

Unfortunately the work is a simple 32 pages of bright-color glitz with little or no substance. A few action shots that focus too often on close-up bizarre angles and "artsy" out-of-focus shots rather than meaningful athletic activity or accomplishment are accompanied by 16 quotes that fall short of being the best available by outstanding female athletes.

Those women who are athletes will find it "ho hum" and those who have aspirations and seek encouragement or recognition will need to seek elsewhere than this publication.

Being a published author myself and an ex-daily newspaper sports writer it would be my guess that putting the book together took at most a half dozen hours of layout and photo selection work coupled with a day or so of some journalism intern's leg work to find some usable quotes.

It just doesn't have anything to offer the reader or athlete.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Play like a Girl, November 19, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Play Like a Girl: A Celebration of Women in Sports (Henry Holt Young Readers) (Hardcover)

My daughter didn't like it very much. It was a collection of photographs more than anything. And even the photographs weren't very striking. The book was missing poems or a story to go along with the pictures. It was disappointing.