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Looking at the people and milestones that opened up sports to all girls and women.
After I finished A Whole New Ball Game, I had a hard time deciding on a topic for a follow-up book. I wanted to continue writing about women’s sports, but no single athlete or event jumped out at me. In an effort to put things in perspective, I started compiling a list of “firsts” in women’s sports and thinking about major trends and turning points. Eventually, I realized that this research could form the backbone of a book.
Winning Ways is called a photohistory because it uses more than 100 photographs to tell the story of the struggles and triumphs of women athletes in the United States. But it’s also a social history, which means it looks at the relationship between women’s participation in sports and changing ideas about women’s roles in society. It does this through the stories of the athletes themselves—people such as English Channel swimmer Gertrude Ederle, Negro Leagues baseball player Toni Stone, and tennis and women’s rights pioneer Billie Jean King.
I studied women’s history in college, so Winning Ways gave me a chance to go back to my old books and think about sports in terms of what I read way back when. But the driving force behind the book was my hunger to learn more about all of those groundbreaking women who history forgot. I wanted to set the record straight, using photographs, newspaper articles, and other documents that were buried in libraries and other archives. I wanted to write about some of the women who made it possible for Mia Hamm, Lisa Leslie, and other athletes of today to play the games they love.
What the Critics Said
“Run, walk, swim, or cycle to get this book into your library. A highly readable, fascinating history of women’s sports in America,...Winning Ways will be an inspiration to today’s athletes, both male and female.”
—ALA Booklist, June 1 & 15, 1996
“A celebration of athletes, all of them women, in a book heavy on facts and firsts, and full of black-and-white photographs.... The lively text, coupled with the photos, ads, trading cards, and other illustrations, is informative and commanding.”
—Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 1996
“One of the best nonfiction young adult books of the 90s.... Truly a celebration of female accomplishments, this book deserves a place on the shelves of every school and public library and should be read by young and old.”
—Signal: Approaches to Children’s Books, circa 1997
Awards and Distinctions
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Best Books, 1996 (School Library Journal)
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Best Books for Young Adults, 1997 (American Library Association)
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Notable Books for Children, 1997 (American Library Association)
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Editor’s Choice, 1996 (Booklist Magazine)
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Books for the Teen Age, 1997 (New York Public Library)
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Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, 1997 (University of Wisconsin)
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YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 1999 (Young Adult Library Services Association and the American Library Association)
Links:
Buy Winning Ways from Amazon.com
Order an autographed copy.
Learn more about issues facing female athletes in history and today at the site of the Women’s Sports Foundation.
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