cover image Basketball Belles: How Two Teams and One Scrappy Player Put Women's Hoops on the Map

Basketball Belles: How Two Teams and One Scrappy Player Put Women's Hoops on the Map

Sue Macy, illus. by Matt Collins, Holiday House, $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8234-2163-3

In this rousing picture book, Macy and Collins take readers to the (very) early days of women's basketball through the eyes of Agnes Morley, who offers a play-by-play account of an 1896 game between Stanford and Berkeley—the first ever between two women's basketball teams. Agnes's first-person account is laced with information about how the game was played at the time, as well as her confident inner thoughts ("I think that a lady can be tough and strong as well as refined and polite"). Whether Agnes is wrangling with a calf on her family's ranch or diving for a loose ball, her determination shines through in Collins's dynamic, painterly digital spreads. Ages 6–10. (Mar.)