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.

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.

Graphic Novels with Girl Power

Cindy and Lynn: We love graphic novels and we especially love graphic novels with girl power! Here are three new ones that differ widely in location and time but all three discover how to find their skills and rock their worlds.

Enola Holmes: the Graphic Novels: Book One ( Andrews McNeal, 2022) by Serena Blasco.

We love the original Enola Holmes books by Nancy Springer! If you haven’t found them or the Netflix series, Enola is the much younger sister of the famous Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. On her 14th birthday, Enola awakens to discover that her mother, a woman of very eccentric beliefs for her time, has disappeared. When her brothers arrive, they decide they must send Enola away to boarding school to become a proper lady. Enola has very different ideas and runs away to London where she sets shop as a private investigator while also searching for her mother.

Blasco’s graphic novel adaptations of the first three cases is absolutely terrific! These are faithful to the books for those of us who care about that and the illustrations are not only inviting but filled with delicious details that reward careful perusing. The language of flowers which plays a big part in the books is included and well explained and the inclusion of them in messages and codes is wonderfully done. Enola is a spunky, smart heroine, and a dab hand at disguise, detecting and outwitting both her brothers and villains.

Blasco captures the tone of the Springer novels perfectly and we absolutely loved reading these versions. This will be terrific both for fans of the originals and for newcomers to the series. Delightful!!!

Swim Team: Small Waves, Big Changes. (Harper Alley, 2022) by Johnnie Christmas.

Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas With four starred reviews, you may have already heard about this sports-themed graphic novel, but if not, you’ll need to get on your starting block and race to get a copy. Bree is starting middle school in a new state and is dismayed to learn that swimming is a big deal at her new Florida school. When the only elective that fits her schedule is not Math Games as she’d hoped, but Swim 101, she’s unnerved. Bree never learned to swim. A neighbor at her apartment, who is an alumnus of Bree’s school and its swim team, jumps in the deep end to help Bree not only learn to swim but to be good enough to be tapped for the struggling swim team.

Bree’s public school lacks the resources of the local private school that usually wins most of the medals and the meets, but the girls and their coach have other resources under their swim caps and the race is on.

Middle school friendships and fights and rude rivals threaten to sink some of the progress of the team until the girls learn to work together. Additional subplots with the coaches and the history of segregated swimming pools and the lack of swimming instruction and access to pools for blacks are woven into the important story. Readers will cheer for Bree as she overcomes her fears and they will learn from her perseverance and commitment as she excels in her sport.

Squire (HarperCollins/Quill Tree, 2022) by Sara Alfageeh.

Squire Aiza dreams of becoming a Squire and then a Knight in the powerful Bayt-Sajii army that controls a vast area. Aiza is poor and of a despised minority, the Ornu, and the army is her only route to citizenship. Aiza conceals her cultural tattoos with wrappings and, with the help of a motley array of allies and enemies survives the intense training, reaching her goal of becoming a Squire. But along the way, Aiza begins to understand the true nature of the country she serves and begins to question where her loyalty and her heart lie.

Set in an alternative Middle East, the illustrations are bold and gorgeously inked. Each expression is wonderfully detailed, providing a depth of understanding of each character. A sweeping tale of understanding the nature of power and true loyalty.

A Sporting Chance: from Incurables to Paralympic Champions

Lynn: I’ve seen a T-Shirt recently that proclaims, “I read. I know things.” I like that but what I want is a T-Shirt that says, “I didn’t know that!” I needed to wear that shirt when I read A Sporting Chance: How Ludwig Guttmann Created the Paralympic Games (Houghton, 2020). This truly outstanding book by Lori Alexander made me exclaim this sentiment the entirety of the book! The book is intended for younger readers, Gr. 2-5, and it introduces them to an extraordinary figure, Ludwig Guttmann. I am sorry to say that I knew nothing about Guttmann or his many outstanding contributions or so much more that Alexander so skillfully conveys.

Ludwig Guttmann’s early life was spent in Germany near the Polish border. A variety of experiences led him to become a neurologist and skilled surgeon. But when the Nazis came to power, Guttmann, a Jew, was forbidden to treat non-Jewish patients and then he lost his medical license completely. As conditions worsened for the Jewish people, Guttmann was able to escape to England where he had to begin again to establish himself as a physician. Finally, his deep interest and research in spinal injuries resulted in him establishing a neurology unit and resuming his ground-breaking work. Again, I had absolutely no idea that spinal injuries were considered un-treatable as late as the end of WWII or that doctors expected patients to die within the year. It is no surprise that 80% of spinal injury patients did just that considering the prevailing appalling beliefs about treatment. Observing the benefits of sports participation for his patients, prompted Guttmann to establish and promote what became the Paralympics. Dr. Guttmann revolutionized understanding and treatment of spinal injury cases and thanks to this book, young readers will come away with a solid grasp of Guttmann’s contributions. They will also gain a real admiration for Guttmann, his perseverance, and the enormous obstacles he had to overcome in his life as well as his impact on the world.

Alexander does an outstanding job of presenting complex and wide-ranging information here for young readers, including scientific and historical background but not bogging down the text. The story is a fascinating one but it is also one with many facets and Alexander manages all of this extremely well. I learned so much from this enjoyable and really inspiring story. Now – where is that T-Shirt????

Cindy: “Incurables.” That’s what spinal injury patients were called. What a journey in the last 80 years and Ludwig Guttmann’s story is fascinating, inspiring, and cautionary. Perseverance and the belief that horrible situations do not have to remain the status quo are characteristics that young readers can learn from as they read this book.

The sometimes tough subject matter and the historical photos are supplemented perfectly for the young audience by Allan Drummond’s illustrations throughout the book. In 2011 we blogged about Energy Island, a book he both wrote and illustrated, and we’ve been fans of his ever since.

The final chapter, “Going for Gold,” features some of the amazing athletes who have won medals at the Paralympic Games.

I was moved to investigate the Paralympic Organization’s website and found this short video that includes Guttmann on their history page. There are more videos and information to be found there, including one about the Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Spinal Treatment Unit.

Dragon Hoops: Gene Luen Yang and Basketball

Cindy: March Madness may be canceled, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have basketball in your life! Regular readers know they can count on a basketball book from Bookends each March. Have we got a champion for you this year! Dragon Hoops (First Second, 2020) by Gene Luen Yang puts a new finger roll, er…spin, on graphic novel memoirs. Yang needs a story idea and wonders if a comic nerd can get his head in the game by following his high school basketball team’s run for the state championship. Yang teaches math and computer science at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, CA. He steps out of his comfort zone and talks to Coach Lou Richie about his idea, even though he’s unsure that it’s a good one. In superhero stories, you know who the good guys and bad guys are and who will win in the end. That’s not the case in sports.

Dragon Hoops is an interesting blend of an O’Dowd basketball season, player backstories (including their ethnic, racial, or religious identities and the challenges they’ve overcome related to those), basketball history, and Yang’s pull between teaching, comics, and his family life. The recurring theme of taking a “step”—across a threshold, onto a court, or into a life-changing decision—is beautifully played. Once again, Yang takes not just a step, but a giant leap in his graphic novel mastery…I can’t wait to see the finished book with its shiny gold foil cover accents. (It published yesterday so we no longer have to wait!)

Lynn: I’ve loved all of Gene Yang’s previous books but this one takes the game into overtime! It is highly entertaining and completely engaging while at the same time doing so much. Yes, it is about a championship basketball season but it is also about family, commitment, the craft of writing, courage, fidelity to the truth in story, friendship, work ethic, love and more. It is important to remember that while Yang is a superb storyteller, he is also a superb artist. He is masterful at conveying emotions through his deceptively simple drawings and in this book he also manages to create the intense action of a championship basketball season. Dragon Hoops leaves a reader feeling both satisfied and deeply thoughtful. This book is a winner!

Cindy and Lynn: Follow Gene Luen Yang on Facebook or Instagram to see some of the great promos accompanying this social-distanced book launch. He’s working hard to make up for the canceled book tour.

Games of Deception – Basketball and History on the Brink of War

Lynn: Did you know the championship game of the first Olympic Basketball game was played on a converted tennis court and so much rain fell, the court looked like a “kiddie swimming pool?” Or that the inventor of the game, James Naismith, came to the Olympics but was refused admission to the first game? Or that while the male athletes had luxurious quarters with fantastic plentiful food, the female athletes were housed in a dormitory and fed on a sparse diet of boiled cabbage and sausage?

Andrew Maraniss packs Games of Deception: The True Story of the First U.S. Olympic Basketball Team at the 1936 Olympics in Hitler’s Germany (Penguin/Philomel 2019) with fascinating sports tidbits like this and provides a breathless sense of being an eye-witness at these pivotal games. While the sports information is terrific, Maraniss is doing a lot more than historical play-by-play. The modern Olympics have always given us a window on the social and political events of their time but the 1936 games especially so. A crippling economic depression still gripped the world, Germany was preparing for war, the forces of racial, religious and gender prejudices and systemic discrimination afflicted people everywhere and the growing fanaticism of nationalistic hatred was intensifying. The Germans deliberately used the games to create a benign image of Nazism and while many were fooled, the truth was seen by a worried minority.

Maraniss does an excellent job of providing the complicated background of this intense and fraught period of history for young people, including information on the political, social, and economic situation as well as the origins of the game of basketball, the state of the game, and its inclusion in the Olympic games as a medal sport. And in a subject that will stand out to teen readers, he paints a horrifying picture of a state deliberately manipulating the truth to deceive the entire world.

With a broad array of primary sources, Maraniss includes the recollections of the team members, coaches, other athletes, and sportswriters of the day and their stories add a lively personal touch to the book. Often humorous, sometimes rueful, these accounts do a wonderful job of giving readers a sense of the attitudes and experiences of the moment. And in important concluding chapters, Maraniss also includes the stories of what happened to the athletes when they returned home. I especially enjoyed the Afterword chapter where the author writes about the origins of the book and his extensive research. Back matter includes excellent documentation and statistics.

This fascinating book will interest a wide range of readers, celebrating the first Olympic basketball competition, and placing it vividly in a critical moment of history.