Gold Medal Sports Books for Teens

Lynn: I admit to being a little sports-mad even in ordinary times but the Olympics pushes my enthusiasm over the bar! If you have readers like that, here are a few new titles featuring 3 sports.

Just Add Water: My Swimming Life (S&S, 2024) by Katie Ledecky. This charming and fascinating memoir is a timely look at her career so far by the woman who has won more Olympic medals than any other American woman. Competing and winning a gold medal at age 15 in her first Olympics, Ledecky published this account just before the Paris Olympics where she won even more medals. Chapters alternate between a chronological account of her swimming career and chapters introducing the family members who have inspired and supported her. Known for her work ethic and sportsmanship, Ledecky is humble here but her commitment shines through this terrific story. This was published as an adult title but it is totally appropriate for middle and high school libraries.

We Are Big Time (Random/Knopf, 2024) by Hena Khan. There’s not much I love more than an underdog sports story! This GN delivers not only that but is also a story based on a true event featuring an all-girls hijab-wearing team from a Muslim high school in Milwaukee. Aliya’s family has moved from warm Tampa to freezing Wisconsin and she is missing her old home terribly. She is also missing her winning basketball team as the Salam High School team is pretty terrible. In fact, they’ve never had a winning season. Not only does Aliya’s team have to battle discrimination, both of their culture and their gender, but they have to figure out how to come together as a team. It all makes for a compelling story that will have readers racing to the end. I read this in galley but even in that format, the illustrations are expressive, dynamic, and vivid. Stock up!

Tryouts (Random/Knopf, 2024) by Sarah Sax. I went into this next installment of the Tryouts Brinkley Yearbook series expecting it to be a story about a female athlete battling to play on a male team. The surprise here is that the new coach welcomes Alexandra or Al delightedly. The baseball team looks to be a shoo-in to win its tenth season until Al captures the attention of the media and all their focus goes to her. Feeling jealous and left out, the rest of the team resents her fame and their winning season is in jeopardy. Bright colorful illustrations make this a fun, fast read and the topic of PR and social media is timely and important.

The Enigma Girls: Teens, Ciphers and War

Lynn: Decades after the secret work at Bletchley Park, its long-hidden stories finally started to be revealed. I’ve read several accounts of pivotal people involved in cryptography but here, wonderfully, in The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win WWII (Scholastic, March 2024) veteran author Candace Fleming focuses on the ordinary young women who made it all happen.

Stressing the extreme youth of the girls, most of whom were still teenagers, Fleming weaves together the stories of 10 young women in particular. They were listeners, translators, Colossus operators, cryptographers, and more. They did the everyday grinding work in terrible conditions with long hours and enormous stress. Sworn to secrecy, they shared the story of their work with no one—not even each other.

Going into fascinating detail, Fleming describes the numerous small parts of the work that required many steps, many people, and meticulous attention to detail. A mistake could kill and they all knew how crucial, if often mind-numbing, their work was. Interspersed with the girls’ stories are the steps to codes, ciphers, and the art and science of breaking them. Using short chapters and clear straight-forward text, Fleming creates an accessible and vivid portrait of an amazing effort by so many.

Careful research and documentation are provided along with archival photographs. Read in galley, so some of the back matter was not finished. This is a must-purchase for middle school collections. Also recommended for high school collections to offer an excellent WWII nonfiction for readers needing simpler text.

Seeing the Truth – Ritter’s Jackaby Returns for YA Readers

Lynn: For fans of the Jackaby series, it has been a long wait since the last installment but it was worth it! The new installment, Rook (Algonquin, 2023), takes place 6 months after the dramatic events of The Dire King (2017). Jackaby’s assistant, Abigail Rook, has acquired all of Jackaby’s extraordinary Sight abilities. Abigail now clearly sees the essential truth of all things, human, supernatural, natural and inanimate, and is struggling to use them effectively. But the city of New Fiddleham can’t wait as a new and more horrifying crisis is gripping the city.

As one gifted magical being after another disappears, Abigail and Jackaby take on the case alongside several other officials who may or may not want to see them succeed. In the city itself, the uneasy alliance between humans and supernatural beings is fraying and Abigail’s shapeshifter fiance, Charlie, is frantically trying to heal the rift.

And then, Abigail’s proper English parents arrive to bundle her back home and marry her to some noble but awful husband. Which crisis will culminate first and will Abigail and Jackaby and friends survive?

It is pure reading joy to be back in the intriguing world of New Fiddleham! William Ritter’s world-building is masterful, the characters deeply engaging and the plot enthralling! It took me only a few minutes to catch up with the situation and then I was off on a whirlwind story. It is always more fun to start at the beginning of a series but I think first-time readers could hop in here and quickly catch up. Ritter’s cast of supernatural creatures is one of the highlights for me, each one more imaginative than the last! Here’s hoping that there are more adventures in this series soon. And if you and your young readers haven’t found this terrific series, get reading!

Cindy: Count me in as a new-to-Jackaby reader who had no problem getting immersed in this world and Ritter’s new story. When Lynn and I worked together we often didn’t read books we knew we’d love in an effort to read a wider variety to booktalk to our students. She had the Jackaby series covered, and our middle school fans were legion. Still, why didn’t she TELL me that I would love this series as much as Jonathan Stroud’s Lockwood & Co. series? Teens with special abilities to save their cities from paranormal entities and snarky humor in spades? Yes, please! She probably did tell me, but I don’t always heed her wise advice. Lesson learned. Now that I’ve read Rook, I’ll be psychically hunting down book one in the series, Jackaby, to start at the beginning.

Standing Tall – New Graphic Novels about Girls and Sports

Lynn: Having grown up in a pre-Title IX world, I am continually awed at the number of sports opportunities for girls today. Yes, I know we still have a long way to go but compared with times before the 1970s, there is so much to celebrate. In this post, I am happy to review two recent graphic novels that feature girls and sports. An added bonus is that one of them is about the history of girls’ sports during the early days of Title IX.

Hoops (Candlewick, 2023) by Matt Tavares is based on a true event. It chronicles the struggles of a start-up girls high school basketball team that overcame so much to claim the 1976 girls basketball championship in Indiana.

Judi’s friends all want to be cheerleaders and assume Judi wants that just as much. But Judi has another dream and that is playing on a basketball team. When the Lady Bears are formed, Judi joyfully signs up but the struggle is just beginning. The team has to practice in an elementary school gym, make their own uniforms and find their own transportation to the games. The athletic director tells them that when they fill a gym, they can share the high school gym with the boys. Tavares tells an engaging and compelling story absolutely rooted in fact, revealing the struggles, inequality, sexism and discrimination they faced. His wonderfully drawn characters come fully to life and I loved the many period details such as Judi’s iconic 70’s haircut, the uniform shorts and the RV they used to travel to games. The games are exciting and suspenseful and readers will be rooting for Judi and her team all the way.

An Author’s Note provides important history of Title IX, girls basketball and the background history of Title IX, and the Warsaw, Indiana girls’ basketball team.

Fox Point's own Gemma Hopper Fox Point’s Own Gemma Hopper (Random House Graphic, 2023) by Brie Spangler is set in the present and tells a story about the impact of sports participation on a shy and self-conscious teen.

Gemma Hopper is having a horrible year. Her mother has gone, leaving her father to work two jobs and Gemma to do the cooking, cleaning, laundry and care for her younger twin brothers on top of school. Her handsome older brother is a baseball superstar, about to leave for a traveling All-Star team and talented pitcher Gemma feels always in his shadow. 6ft tall and built like a bean pole, Gemma also feels increasingly out of step at school and with her best friend who longs to be part of the popular crowd. When a family tree assignment pushes Gemma to the brink, things really begin to spiral and her anger and sadness cause her to lash out at the people around her.

Brie Spangler’s story and clear graphic art are compelling and deeply sympathetic. She reveals so much about the characters through her illustrations. A particular highlight for me was the change in Gemma’s posture as she slumped through the school hallways, hiding her height and then standing tall and proud as she joins the team and finds her strength and confidence. The sports element is wonderfully conveyed as well as the drama of the games. But, it is Gemma herself, her insecurities, resentment and unhappiness that is the focus and as she confronts those emotions and begins to value herself, all readers will be cheering.

One Last Shot – Introducing Gerda Taro to YA Readers

Lynn: One important tenet of reviewing books is that you review the book you have not the book you WISH you had. I’m running aground a bit on staying with that in my consideration of Kip Wilson’s new verse novel, One Last Shot: The Story of Wartime Photographer Gerda Taro (Harper/Versify, 2023).

Wilson introduces readers to a young Gerta Pohorylle who has immigrated with her Jewish family to Germany. Gerta was a bright student who learned early to live two very separate lives, downplaying her Jewish faith, but keenly aware of a feeling of being “other.” Gerta was drawn early to oppose the growing repression of the fascism coming to power in the 1930s and worked actively for workers’ rights. After being arrested and held for 3 weeks by the Gestapo, Gerta and her family made the decision for her to leave Stuttgart and move to Paris. Struggling to survive, Gerta met and connected with other leftist young people, growing more and more involved with working against fascist regimes. It is during this time that she met and fell in love with Andre Friedmann. Andre sparked her passion for photography and the power of photojournalism and she practiced intensely with any camera she could borrow. It was during this period they adopted the names Gerda Taro and Robert Capa.

Wilson uses free verse to tell Taro’s story and the verse is wonderfully written. Vivid and evocative, it is written in present tense and provides snapshots of time, Gerda’s feelings, and reactions to the intensity of the events unfolding around her. Wilson does an excellent job of presenting Taro as a fierce, independent, and exuberant spirit determined to make her own way. She also provides the extremely complicated historical background of the time. Is there ANY period in history more convoluted than the Spanish Civil War??? I think Wilson gives teens an excellent grasp of the major issues of the period without slowing the pace of the narrative. So—I see real value in this book in that I think Wilson introduces an extraordinary talent to another generation and I hope they will be motivated to seek more information.

And here is where I veer from the path of reviewing. Wilson discusses in the back matter that while “sticking to the basic facts she has fictionalized Gerda’s thoughts, feelings, interactions, and correspondences.” For me, this emphasizes a perception of her spirit and the result is that so much is left unexplored or only briefly mentioned and those things are large in importance. Taro is pivotal in the development of modern photojournalism, she was a major talent in news photography and many of the philosophical decisions she and Capa made shape our view of photojournalism today. I would have liked to see this explored much more. And there is something missing when a book about a photographer contains no photographs!

I would like to suggest pairing this verse novel with the brilliantly written and documented book by Mark Aronson and Marina Buhos, Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and the Invention of Modern Photojournalism (Henry Holt, 2017). Suggest this book to students wanting a deeper look at Gerda Taro, and some of her revolutionary photographs.

True Courage and a New Leica – YA Nonfiction – Close-up On War

Lynn: Did you ever wonder where the term “snapshot” comes from? Mary Cronk Farrell includes this tidbit (from the sound made as a picture was taken and the film advanced) in her outstanding new book, Close-Up on War: the Story of Pioneering Photojournalist Catherine Leroy in Vietnam (Abrams/Amulet, 2022). This fascinating book is also a snapshot – a captured picture of a pivotal time and the determined woman who recorded it on film for the world to see.

French woman Catherine Leroy was just 21 years old when she arrived in Vietnam in early 1966. She spoke limited English, carried a new Leica camera she was still learning to use, and she was determined to make her way in what was then a man’s world of photojournalism. Barely 5 feet tall, slim and blonde, Catherine’s appearance belied her fierce ambition, persistence, initiative, and courage.

Farrell begins the book with an excellent and succinct overview of the history of Vietnam and the decades of conflict that had beset the area giving young readers a necessary background for a war that, while still painfully present for many of us, is ancient history to teens. Into this chaotic stew, Catherine Leroy arrived and the book then follows her from her early months struggling to win respect, get jobs, and make her way to the action. Farrell uses a wealth of primary sources including Catherine’s own letters to her mother, accounts from people who knew and worked with her, her articles, and a treasure trove of photographs.

Catherine was extremely humble and always gave credit to others but through these many sources, Farrell creates a sharp image of a remarkable woman, her struggles, obstacles, battle experiences, and the price she paid for her achievements. In her groundbreaking work, Catherine Leroy put an up-close and personal face on the distant war in Vietnam. She brilliantly caught the suffering and the human impact in her photography and brought it into the living rooms of America. Her work helped to align public understanding with the reality of that horrible war.

Wonderfully written and documented, Farrell has brought this important story to today’s young readers in an account that feels as if it is happening before our eyes. The included back matter is excellent. It includes an Author’s Note, lengthy glossary, timeline, and source notes. There is also a remarkably clear explanation titled “How a Camera Worked in 1960s” that will be eye-opening to teens accustomed to digital photography.

There are so many extraordinary photographs included in the book. Some are of Leroy, many are taken by her, and others are taken by others at the time. Abrams/Amulet has done an excellent job of book design and reproduction and this collection adds extraordinary interest and value to the book.

I am long-time admirer of Catherine Leroy and her work and of photography and photojournalism in general. For teens interested in these subjects, or in history or women’s history this is highly recommended. It will be an excellent resource for high school and college history classes as well.

Code Breaking: The Woman All Spies Fear

Cindy: We realize that many of you are already familiar with this 2022 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults finalist, but we have to talk about The Woman All Spies Fear (Random House Studios, 2021) by Amy Butler Greenfield anyway. Years ago, Lynn and I had a middle school girl who would only, and I mean ONLY, read books that featured math. In that pre-STEM publication world we struggled to keep her in books. Greenfield’s biography of code breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman would have pleased that student immensely. If you’ve ever struggled to solve a coded message, you’ll appreciate Friedman’s talent.

Elizebeth left Indiana in 1916, after earning a degree in English Literature and with a need to distance herself from a controlling father. Offered a strange job at a tycoon’s estate in Geneva, Illinois, the work at Riverbank would change the course of her life and help her discover her talent for code breaking. Colonel George Fabyan, the bizarre and also controlling millionaire, had many research teams working on his estate, but Elizebeth was put to work helping a team seeking to prove that Francis Bacon was the true author of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. The work involved looking for ciphers within the text and also introduced Elizebeth to the man she would marry and work alongside the rest of her life as cryptanalists. Shakespeare’s authorship was never debunked, but the work sparked an interest provided a valuable training ground for understanding ciphers.

As Greenfield sheds light on Elizebeth’s growing skills in code-breaking, she also throws some challenges to her readers as she explains the various types of codes. I found myself pulling out paper and pencil to work some of them myself, and I’m sure teen readers will do the same. Elizebeth and her husband William made a great team as code-breaking involves multiple skills and Elizebeth had a talent for intuition that was invaluable in their work. Working in the first half of the 20th century, she faced bigger challenges than the codes she untangled, that of being a working female in a man’s world. Many of her accomplishments went unrecognized, the credit claimed by the FBI or other agencies as the Friedman’s escaped from Fabyan’s grips and became successful code-breakers working for the government and military the rest of their careers. Her intelligence, tenacity, and dedication to her work are inspiring.

Lynn: Cindy is so right about how inspiring this incredible woman is! Amy Greenfield does a masterful job of presenting the many facets of Elizebeth’s life and abilities, and she had to decipher this information often from the smallest of hints or comments from Elizebeth’s letters and diaries. She and William spent a lifetime dealing with the weight of world-shaking secrets, life or death discoveries, and the binding need for utter secrecy—even from each other. For much of their later working life, they each carried this enormous mental weight alone. William’s mind crumpled at many times but Elizebeth soldiered on, always supportive of him and her family. That their love for each other only strengthened despite this wall of secrecy amazes me.

The treatment of Elizebeth in the workplace, the lack of recognition for her brilliant work and the ultimate outrage of the NSA’s seizure of their personal records is something that will horrify any reader. The fact that Elizebeth persevered, achieved marvels with her work, and remained steadfast, humble, and courageous is truly inspiring. I hope young readers will be as inspired by this woman as they are outraged by the obstacles she overcame.

This is a masterfully crafted work and a well-deserved finalist in the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. Greenfield carefully cited her sources, attributions, and conclusions—something of a work of crypto-analysis itself due to the intense secrecy surrounding Friedman’s work and life. It is a compelling story to read as well. A perfect choice for any high school collection and ideal for STEM collections as well.

Doing the Impossible – Neal Bascomb’s The Race of the Century

Lynn: Did you know that 70 years ago most people believed that running a mile in 4 minutes was impossible and beyond the limits of the human body? “It was something that God himself had established as man’s limit,” said one writer. But suddenly in 1952, three runners were poised to do just that. It did happen, of course. Two of the three broke the 4 minute mile in 1954. Today’s record is 3.143.13 seconds. How did mankind achieve this “unbreakable” speed? I am not a runner. My idea of exercise is a daily walk with my camera. But it is amazing the unfamiliar paths that a wonderful nonfiction writer will coax a reader to trod and thanks to Neal Bascomb’s latest book, The Race of the Century: the Battle to Break the 4 Minute Mile (Scholastic, March 2022), I have become fascinated with the amazing story of this ongoing battle of man running against the clock.

Bascomb chronicles the stories of 3 individual racers, Roger Bannister of England, Wes Santee, a Kansan and Australian John Santee. Each one found himself poised on the threshold of a ground-breaking achievement. All were amateurs in the strictest sense of the word. Bannister was finishing his medical training to become a physician, Landy was studying science at university and Santee was working his way through Kansas University while running on both the track and cross country teams. All three expected their athletic efforts to end on graduation. Suddenly all three were facing intense attention from the press and huge national expectations.Who would break the record first and how would he do it?

Bascomb follows each runner through their unique racing careers and experiences, detailing each man’s training regimes. Even to a non-runner, this was fascinating as each runner was remarkably different from the others. Imagine trying to do elite intense training in the little free time left available to a medical student in his last year of training and working as an intern! The moment by moment accounts of the pivotal races, each runner’s race strategies, physical struggles and mental preparations are presented in clear prose and for young runners, this part of the book will be especially absorbing.

For me as a non-runner, it was the individual personalities and their approaches to the challenge that were the most compelling. The stark contrast between the elite amateur runner in the ’50’s and the world class runners of today also stood out for me.

I read this book in galley and the included black and white photographs added so much. Bascomb, as always, does an excellent job of citing his sources in detailed chapter notes and the back matter also includes an Author’s Note and an intriguing bibliography.

Hand this book to young runners and to those teens who love historical nonfiction.

Gone to the Woods: Gary Paulsen

Cindy: In 1984 I graduated with my MLS and Gary Paulsen published Tracker, a story about a boy deer hunting with his grandfather. Two years later, he added Hatchet to his growing list and picked up the first of his Newbery Honor Awards. For nearly four decades I watched my middle school students forage the shelves for his stories, eager for his descriptions of survival in the wild, life on the farm, or dalliances with an even wilder side of life. Most of those stories contained elements of truth, bits of Paulsen’s life, woven into fiction or told as memoir. His latest book, Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood (Farrar, 2021) provides an even more intimate look into his early years.

Told in third person, describing himself as “the boy,” Pauslen tells his story in five parts: The Farm, The River, The Ship, Thirteen, and, The Soldier. Here we see and feel the neglect and abuse from his parents, the love and lessons from his grandparents, and his eye-opening experiences in the Philippines that informed his time later as as soldier. In “Thirteen” he shares the story of the librarian who saved him. I’d heard it told at some of his speaking engagements, but the fuller version here can’t help but make you tear up a little, especially if you are a librarian. That she not only gave him books, and a warm place to hang out, and acceptance, but a notebook and pencil with encouragement to write his own stories…I wish every kid had such support. For the kid reading this, who may not have the support they need, the book should provide some hope, and an example that hard, lost childhoods can be survived, Northwind by Gary Paulsen if not as easily as a thick swarm of mosquitos on a hot summer night. We all mourned in October when we heard the news of Gary Paulsen’s death, but his stories will always be with us. And, there’s one more on the way, Northwind (Farrar, Jan. 11, 2022), an ocean adventure with “hints of Nordic mythology.” Thank you, Mr. Paulsen, for all you shared with us.

Fallout – Sheinkin’s Terrifying Look for Teens at How Close the World Came to Destruction

Lynn: Where were you in October 1962? I know a whole lot of you weren’t even on this planet yet but how much do you know about how close we came to annihilating this place we call home? I was a young teen at the time, going to junior high in Belmont, MA and I remember those days quite well. I think I especially remember them because I realized my father was grimly worried, even scared. We watched the reports on the news and when I asked my dad if there would be a war, all he would do was shrug. I remember too, the sigh of relief when Russia “blinked” but I also remember an overwhelming sense of helplessness at these events that could wipe out the world and there was nothing I could do.

That is a long way of saying that if you read any historical nonfiction book this year, make sure it is Steve Sheinkin’s Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown. (Roaring Brook, 2021). Yes, it was 1962 but there are parallels here that need to be understood by all of us who inhabit this same fragile wanderer in space.

Sheinkin is a master of narrative nonfiction, of careful research, and is a compelling storyteller. He takes an event for which we know the trajectory and manages to keep readers hanging on by a thread as his chronicle unfolds. And in this book, he relates a tale as complex, convoluted, and shrouded in secrecy as anything in history. It is a tale of personal courage, thoughtful reflections, and a willingness to resist the pressures of other dominant opinions. It is equally a tale of luck, bungling, and terrible timing. I paused with awful frequency to shake my head in wonder and horror at the incredible chain of events that we call the Cuban Missile Crisis.

How close did we come to nuclear war? Closer than any of us outside of a very few people knew. There are true heroes in this story as well as reckless fools and power hungry zealots. This is a marvel of nonfiction writing. Succinct, wonderfully researched and cited, and thoughtfully recounted. It is also has the terrible fascination of watching a train wreck. If you were around then or are just now encountering the story, this book will hold you captive and maybe haunt your dreams with what could have been. As Robert McNamara, then Secretary of Defense, said, “At the end we lucked out. It was luck that prevented nuclear war.” See if you agree.

Cindy: Besides being stellar works of nonfiction, Steve Sheinkin’s books are a booktalker’s dream. Here’s the opening paragraph of the prologue, titled: “The Paperboy.”

“The kid hiked up the dark stairwell to the sixth floor, hoping only for a decent tip, maybe fifteen cents. Busting up a Russian spy ring was an unexpected bonus.”

Read that sentence to your students and stand back, hoping you’ve purchased a lot of copies! One of the nickels the paperboy received was a hollow coin that popped open after falling on the stairs and the boy discovered a tiny piece of film inside. Hmmmm….and away we go!

Bomb by Steve Sheinkin I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, and I was holding my breath in places (when I wasn’t gasping) even though I knew the outcome. What I didn’t know was many of the details and stories behind the Cold War build-up, the dangerous rescue efforts after the Berlin Wall went up, and the last hour unlucky mishaps during the Cuban Missile Crisis, any one of which could have could have been more than disastrous, but for some added good luck. Obviously, this is a natural sell to teen readers who were fascinated by Sheinkin’s earlier YA book, Bomb: The Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, but adults will want to read this as well.