A review by jessoehrlein
Out of Our League: 16 Stories of Girls in Sports by Dahlia Adler, Jennifer Iacopelli

  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Really loved that this covers girls in all different sports and at all different kinds of levels, playing in different ways and for different reasons.

Some favorites:
*Iacopelli's "Safe at Home" - we don't have enough softball YA stories, and this one is so explicitly for the A League of Their Own (movie) fans
*Sarah Henning's "Better in the Long Run" - the reflections on running as love vs punishment here are so good! And people becoming teammates!
*Maggie Hall's "Sidelined" - I really like stories of people finding different places than they expected in activities they love. Also figuring out if they actually like something!
*"Volley Girl" by Adler - all the growing up feelings.

The one where I knew enough about the sport to have quibbles and *did* have them was the sport climbing story. The portrayal of climbing itself is fine, but the Olympic qualification process for 2020 is so thoroughly not even remotely how it worked!


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