Players in Pigtails

Players in Pigtails

Written by: Shana Corey

Illustrated by: Rebecca Gibbon

Scholastic Press, 2003

40 pages

Picture Book: Historical Fiction

            I chose this book because I love sports. I really related to this story because I was a tomboy growing up and always wanted to play sports with the boys. I love this book because it’s a story about how girls started playing professional baseball. This story is about a girl named Katie Casey who loves baseball. She wasn’t very good at being girly, but she was amazing at baseball. This book is about her journey to professional baseball. Katie follows her dreams, despite constant mocking, and finds herself on the first Girl’s Professional Baseball League. She hits a grand slam and wins the game.

The illustrator of this book is Rebecca Gibbon. Rebecca used watercolor and colored pencils to create the illustrations for this book. Rebecca uses several pastel colors in her illustrations; she uses a lot of yellow, blue, and green. She does a great job depicting the era and style of the 40’s in her illustrations. I was impressed at the accuracy in which she drew the clothes, uniforms, and hairstyles of that time period.

This book is appropriate for ages 4 and up. I would use this book in a 3^rd grade classroom for a history lesson. I would read the book to my students and discuss how baseball is a national pastime. We would also discuss the part in the book that talked about how President Roosevelt was concerned about our country having a pastime during WWII. I could also use this book to introduce a science lesson on gravity. I would read this book to my 2^nd grade students and talk about gravity as it relates to baseball. This book would be a great way to introduce a creative writing lesson to 4^th graders. I would read this book to my students and prompt them to write by saying, “Do you think it was important that women were finally able to play professional sports? Why or why not?”