Women's Soccer Returns- Meet Trailblazer: Lily Parr!

Anchoring this post in Covid-19 time:
Among the horrific consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic are the ever-rising death toll, the rapid increases in regional "hot spots" (with related lack of ICU beds), the insistence by far too many that masks are useless, and the emotional pain of missing loved ones and their important life-events. Among countless other effects are economic distress, evictions, indebtedness from medical costs and unemployment. Even so, these life-changing and continuing destructions seem to be of less concern (to some) than our lack of public recreation, including broadcast of professional sports.
Proportionality?
I get it, to some extent. Sports can be a unifying force, and viewing can offer diversion from pain, suffering, and simple boredom. Efforts are underway to provide those benefits while assuring safety for all involved. The National Women's Soccer League is among sports organizations taking steps to find a safe way through the present pandemic labyrinth. If they are successful, a tournament will begin broadcasting matches (with public non-attendance) near the end of June. (Learn more here.) Meanwhile, here's some good reading! 

Maverick Publishing, 2020

Fans of sports, biography, women's history, and resilience are going to love a new picture book releasing in August. Trailblazer: Lily Parr- The Unstoppable Star of Women's Football is written by Elizabeth Dale and illustrated by Carolina Coroa. If you've read about or seen (A League of Our Own) about American Women's softball leagues during the Second World War,  you might feel a sense of deja vu when reading about  Lily's life story. 
Her calling began a generation earlier while she played in the streets and discovered her talent, strength, and love of "football" (the name for soccer in Britain). She received mixed messages as a child: that girls didn't play football, and that she could outkick, outrun, and outplay everyone else, including the boys. 
Both messages followed her throughout her life. 
But that mistaken gender assumption and cultural restriction never held her back. At only fourteen years old she began what would be a lifetime career in sports, despite intense and organized efforts to limit women players. During the First World War, she and other females replaced men-gone-to-war in their factory jobs, then practiced and played football for hours and hours on their own time. Lily's teammates agreed to play for absurdly low payment in order to donate ticket income to charity. 
That much of Lily's story should hook you, but there is much more. When men decided that football wasn't "suitable" for women, public stadiums were no longer available for their games. Lily's team and others vowed to play on, using local plowed fields. But the crowds they had drawn to overflowing in those stadiums wouldn't fit on a village field. Lily's journey to gain the right to play, and to find the right place to do it, led her to the USA. There she continued to rack up wins, break records and thrill fans .

The obstacles to women's soccer that Britain had set in place lasted half a century, into the 1970s. Lily's career did the same. In Lily's long football career she set unimaginable records: for goals and assists, for power and speed, for success at many positions and spectacular plays, and for defying the expectations and limits of her time. Her amazing life unfolds through those years with lively stages and equally appealing page turns, featuring accessible text and spot inserts citing jaw-dropping statistics and accomplishments. By the conclusion, I was ready to wave a banner to give Lily the credit she deserved. You will find out if my help was needed or not on the last pages.

Interior spread, TRAILBLAZER (Maverick Publications)

The final turn provides a simple timeline of Lily Parr's life in sports, and the end papers collect and display those informative fact-circles from the interior. It is a wonderful way to celebrate and congratulate Lily's remarkable success, not only in sport, but in blazing the trail for women in all sports, all around the world.
Throughout my teaching years (elementary) many of my fellow educators (specialists, teaching paraprofessionals, volunteers, and student teachers) would comment on how much they were learning from picture books we shared. I couldn't agree more. I'm a Jeopardy fan and I often know correct answers I've gleaned from  prior picture book reading. The all-time money winner, James Holzhauer, "Jeopardy James", told Alec Tribeck that he prepared by spending time with picture books. (Read further comments from James HERE.)
TRAILBLAZER is yet another book that taught me important hidden history in the most appealing, engaging, and entertaining of ways. 

Poster via Colours of Us

#BlackLivesMatter anchor in time:
Last weekend Juneteenth was celebrated. By now you should have heard enough of the basics to know what that celebration is about. My unscientific survey among highly educated friends and family revealed that NONE of us had ever learned about, at any grade level, from any formal educational source. Whether this celebration is new to you or if you've been aware from public events or other sources in the past, let these outstanding PICTURE BOOKS surprise you with the richness and detail that is our American history and heritage. And don't let that age label throw you off- you never outgrow your need for picture books- or learning new things.

During weekend interviews and conversations I've heard several people refer to the current state of global awareness as a MOVEMENT, not a MOMENT. It's my deepest hope and intention to help make that happen. One way we all can support having a more informed, just, and equitable future is to learn the many sides of OUR HISTORY that has been too long told through a single, inadequate point of view. 

SOCCERVERSE: A Perfect Title for Perfect Poems

Wordsong, 2019

Anchoring this post in time:
We're well into the third week of SAFE-AT-HOME self-quarantine behaviors related to the Covid19 pandemic. In this part of the world (upper Midwest, USA) we have experienced warmer than usual April weather. That leads to both positive and negative effects on maintaining safe social distance. 
Of course, fair weather means many of us are able to spend time outdoors: gardening, walking, home repairs, birdwatching, and many other fresh air options to combat cabin fever. 
Unfortunately, sunny days also make it harder to honor health concerns that prevent us (all ages) from engaging in team sports. 
Whether you are a soccer-loving person or not, Imagine every opportunity to exercise, explore, practice or create (safely) during this time of enforced isolation as steps into the future, in which individual skills and talents can be shared with others. 

SOCCERVERSE: POEMS ABOUT SOCCER is written by the very talented poet  Elizabeth Steinglass and illustrated by Edson Ike. Interested in learning more about the author? Check out this wonderful interview from last year when the book released, HERE.
This collection of twenty-plus individual poems incorporates various poetic forms, each of which adopts distinct voices and points of view. It offers a gateway to poetry even for those who may resist reading or writing this genre. April IS poetry month, after all. 
This can be especially helpful during current home-based learning.
The interconnected emotional and active lives of the characters portrayed, all engaging in various ways through soccer, depict a multiverse of individuals. It could in some ways substitute for an enforced lack of team engagement. In place of peers, siblings and parents may even become more desirable teammates that is typically the case.
In SOCCERVERSE: POEMS ABOUT SOCCER, the backmatter supplement describes forms for each poem, with a challenge to match the poems to its form, complete with an answer key for independent readers. Teachers (parents) who wish to use this collection as mentor text should enjoy the challenge, too.
Soccer is a sport that requires team effort while expecting individuals to improve skills, well, individually. The same is true for writing, reading, math, and all of those other safe-at-home academic efforts. Spending some time outdoors, being active and curious, can help each of us find joy and growth in this unprecedented time. Take a look at this example from the collection:

Poem from SOCCERVERSE, Wordson, 2019

While you're at it, Check out this interview with Baptiste Paul, author of THE FIELD, from an earlier post.  
This book is not a poetry collection, but pairs perfectly with the poem above. It also reminds readers that THE FIELD that calls to us all- our greening grass and empty playgrounds, may not always be available. Even so, we can hold hope that our pent up energy will eventually bring us all back together in joy. 

Don't forget, you can support independent booksellers by placing pick-up or mailable orders, inviting friends into your home in the form of new books!