Girls Playing Sports!

Hello Mixed-Up Filers!

Hope all of you are well since my last post sometime last year! Missed all of you! But, I’m sure you had a great time with all of the wonderful new contributors we have. It’s fun to have new blood. What’s even better is, getting to haze them all with new and improved rituals. What’s even better than that is, with all of the members we have now, it relieves the stress of having to post every two months and spaces it out some more. I think my next post is scheduled for sometime in November of 2027! Please mark it on your calendars!

Anyway, let’s get back to me!

As the three of you, who regularly read my columns can attest to, I usually have a lot of trouble deciding what to come up with for my posts. This month is no exception.

Well, what I decided to do, is since my daughter plays travel softball, and this is the time of year when she’s just starting to get into the new season, I decided to list a few of the books we like, which feature girls playing sports! So, since Dorian Cirrone says I need to take up as little space as possible, just in case someone wants to post recipes or something, I’d better get to it!

First up on my list is, You Throw Like a Girl, by Rachele Alpine. The book is about twelve-year old, Gabby, who promises her dad she’ll play softball and promises her mom that she’ll be in the beauty pageant. So . . . she winds up having to do both! First lesson to remember, though, is to remember to NEVER pick anything over softball! Even though, Gabby has to play baseball, since there is no girls’ softball team that year. It’s a fun book, and anything which has girls playing baseball and softball is good with me.

The next book in our girls’ sports list is, The Kid from Diamond Street: The Extraordinary Story of Baseball Legend Edith Houghton, by Audrey Vernick. This is a true story about Edith Houghton, a young girl who played baseball in the 1920’s. My daughter enjoys reading anything about girls in sports, and she loves it even more if the stories are real. This was a fascinating book and we enjoyed it quite a bit. The only knock on it is, the author is a big Yankee fan, which is a HUGE social faux pas and never to be allowed under ANY circumstances. Still, we’ll forgive her, since we enjoyed the book.

Finally, we have The Kicks books by Alex Morgan. You can honestly jump into any of The Kicks books and enjoy them. They’re all about a twelve-year old girl named, Devin, and her experiences playing soccer and making friends. All my kids played and loved soccer, so this is a fun series for them to read. This is for when you want a short break from softball or baseball books, I’ll allow you to jump into soccer.

What are some of your favorite books about girls playing sports? Let me know in the comments section, since I’m always looking for new titles!

And by the way, if three or more people comment, Dorian promised that next time, I can actually sit with the rest of the Mixed-Up Files staff at our monthly meeting. Well, sit with isn’t exactly right, but I don’t have to leave the room this time.

Until next time!

Jonathan

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JROSEN
Jonathan Rosen is a transplanted New Yorker, who now lives with his family in sunny, South Florida. He spends his “free” time chauffeuring around his three kids. Some of Jonathan’s fondest childhood memories are of discovering a really good book to dive into, in particular the Choose Your Own Adventure Series, and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Jonathan is proud to be of Mexican-American descent, although neither country has been really willing to accept responsibility. He is the author of Night of the Living Cuddle Bunnies, which is out now, and its sequel, From Sunset Till Sunrise. He is the co-host of the YouTube channels, Pop Culture Retro, Comics and Pop. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook, FromtheMixedUpFiles.Com, SpookyMiddleGrade.com, and his own website, WWW.HouseofRosen.com
8 Comments
  1. Love these books. I loved baseball as a child and would love to relive the memories by reading these. Thank you for sharing.

  2. Sliding Into Home by Dori Hillestad Butler is a great girls’ sports book. The main character has always played baseball, but her new school has only softball. She tries to play on the boys’ baseball team, but the misogynistic coach prevents her, so she has to explore other options.

  3. Nice post, Jonathan! But, for the record, I did not say you should take up as little space as possible. I said, “Perhaps you should consider living on a different planet since travel to outer space is possible.” That’s very different.:)

  4. I have a couple of books from The Kicks series~ my daughter’s almost at a reading level to read them herself and she loves soccer, so I’m excited to hear her thoughts. One of my favorite middle grade sports-themed books is The Girl Who Threw Butterflies by Mike Cochrane.

  5. A Rambler Steals Home, by Carter Higgins, is only a few days in the world, and based on the raves of my librarian friends, it’s a real winner of a book about a baseball-playing girl. I can’t wait to read it, even though (gulp!) as I’ve already confessed to Jonathan, I’m not actually a huge baseball fan…

    • I saw that one!Going to pick it up.

  6. Yankees. Yankees. Yankees.
    (And thanks for the kind review!)

    • Enjoy all your books, but I’m going to have to delete the Yankees comments. You understand, right? 🙂