Friday, December 23, 2022

RA RA READ: Middle Grade Sports in Fiction

I've found that sports books go in spurts. For a while, I will have no requests and then suddenly I'll get a burst of interest and I won't have enough. Fortunately, I'm in a consortium and can borrow titles. I have noticed that most sports titles with girls are more character-driven and have less of the play-by-play action that kids, both boys and girls, want. There's also a real dearth of nonfiction sports titles featuring female players.

Authors for younger or struggling readers
  • Fred Bowen
  • Matt Christopher
  • Jake Maddox
    • Multiple titles, includes sports with girls
Authors for middle grade readers
  • John Coy
  • Tim Green
  • Tommy Greenwald
  • Dan Gutman (Baseball Card Adventures)
  • Derek Jeter
  • Mike Lupica
  • W. C. Mack (Athlete vs Mathlete)
  • Jake Maddox JV
    • Multiple titles, includes sports with girls
Titles featuring girls
  • Lupe Wong won't dance by Barba Higuera
  • There's no base like home by Jessica Mendoza
  • Alex Morgan - The Kicks
  • Iva-Marie Palmer - Gabby Garcia's ultimate playbook
  • Belle Payton - It takes two
More Resources

2 comments:

Ms. Yingling said...

Don't forget Rich Wallace and Fred Bowen for younger middle grade, and Carl Deuker for older. Sports books are probably the ones that have the most interest but are hardest to find. The Alex Morgan books are really good and popular, and girls who like those like the "Pretty Tough" series as well. I am always surprised at hoe much I like sports books, since I never read any as a child!

Jennifer said...

Yeah, there's a LOT more than I have here - this is just what I've got at our library. Mostly the kids read Matt Christopher and Jake Maddox for the younger and Tim Green and Mike Lupica for the older - I do have a Fred Bowen, but it doesn't check out. I'll have to look up the Pretty Tough series - I need more books with girls playing sports.