Women in Sports: 50 Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win by Rachel Ignotofsky

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Publication date: 2017
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Pages: 119
My rating: 5 Stars
Ages: 8+

Do you know who the first woman figure skater was? Or that a woman dressed as a man for 20 years in order to play polo? This book explores the life and achievements of women in sports from the 19th century to the present.

Just like in Ignotofsky's previous book, this book was just as wonderful and charming! It's colorful and bright, with fun illustrations and interesting facts. Each athlete gets a two page spread, with a one page bio.

While there are obviously a lot more women who could have been featured in this book, Ignotofsky chose women who were trail blazers, record breakers, or especially respected in their sport. There are mountaineers, coaches, weightlifters, jockeys, and so many other kinds of sports.

This is a must for anyone and is particularly good for children to learn more about athletes and sports history.

*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.
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A Season of Daring Greatly by Ellen Emerson White

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Publication date: 2017
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Pages: 420
My rating: 2 stars
Ages: 13+

Jill Cafferty has made history as the first woman to be drafted onto a MLB team. That was the easy part. Now she has to deal with her new found stardom, her teammates, and the haters that come with it. Jill isn't sure if she can handle it, or if baseball is worth it.

This book had such great potential. The story of someone making history. . . it could have been such an amazing story. However, right off the bat, I was distracted.

The editing wasn't up to par. Usually I dismiss this as me just being an editor, but it was so prevalent, on every single page, that I just can't this time. Sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, chapter breaks . . . all of it together made it difficult to get into the story.

When I did try to ignore the editing, I started to notice little things about the writing. So much of the book was internal for Jill, but it was written in the third person. Changing it to first person would have made it much more approachable and bring the reader closer to Jill. Then we could have focused more on the difficulties and her insecurities in a better and deeper way. There were also parts of the book that were too long, which, if shortened, would have allowed for other parts to be longer or more fleshed out.

There was some language and sexual discussion.

*I do not receive compensation from Amazon.