In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle

Blais, Madeleine. In these girls, hope is a muscle. New York, NY: Warner Books, 1995.

Barnes & Noble Annotation:

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist tells the story of a high school girls' basketball team's championship season and their fierce, funny, sisterhood-is-powerful quest for excellence. Reminiscent of A Sense of Where You Are and Friday Night Lights, Blais's book takes readers through an incredible season of the Lady Hurricanes of Massachusetts.

Awards and Honors:

• National Book Critics Circle Award, 1995 Finalist in General Nonfiction
• ALA Best Books for Young Adults, 1996
• ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 1999 Good Sports

Review:

Publishers Weekly, January 1996

When Pulitzer Prize-winner Blais pokes gentle fun at Amherst, Mass., where an infuriated teen-aged athlete in the heat of the fray may yell, "You ignore your inner child!" you suspect this will be a special book. And it is, as the reader follows the Amherst High girls basketball team-the Lady Hurricanes-in the 1992-93 season, from game one on December 15 to the final game on March 16, when they all but obliterated Haverhill, 74-36, to win the state championship. While this is the story of well-bred, upper-middle class, genteel girls who learned to be tough, it is also a picture of a changing period in American sports history, when a town rallied around its female athletes in a way that had previously been reserved for males. Alternately funny, exciting and moving, the book should be enjoyed not only by girls and women who have played sports but also those who wanted to but let themselves be discouraged.

Collection Suggestion:

While the story of this team would appeal to readers of all ages, the story may drag at points for younger readers when the author goes into detail about Amherst, MA, the hometown of the hometown team. For this reason, I would recommend it to high school librarians but not necessarily middle school librarians. That said, this book begins to fill a huge void of decent literature about female athletes so even middle school librarians might consider the book if they have students who might not want to wait until high school.