Lizzie Murphy was good at baseball. In fact, she was better than most of the boys. But she was born in 1900, and back then baseball was not a game for girls. Lizzie practiced with her brother anyway, and then she talked her way onto the local boys' team, first as a batboy, then as a player. Everyone was impressed by her hard catches and fast pitches.
By the time she turned fifteen, she was playing for two different amateur boys' teams. When she turned eighteen, Lizzie did something else that women weren't supposed to do: she signed up with a professional baseball team, determined to earn her living playing the game.
"McCully takes a brief look at the career of Lizzie Murphy, the first woman to play in a major-league exhibition game and the first person to play on the New England and American leagues' all-star teams....Realistic drawings in acrylic ink reflect the attire of the times, particularly Murphy in her feminine dresses. The scenes that show her being shunned and then gradually accepted by the boys are particularly well done. The dialogue-heavy narrative and subject matter will easily appeal to readers. McCully's book is both a good all-round baseball story and an inspirational story about believing in oneself and overcoming opposition." -- Roxanne Burgh, School Library Journal
Recommended Age | 5 - 9 |
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Author | Emily Arnold McCully |
Illustrator | Emily Arnold McCully |
ISBN | 0374300070 |
Publication Date | Feb 17, 2015 |
Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) |
Language | English |