Girls are bad-a$$ in ways they might not know. And Maria Pepe did not really know it, she just knew she wanted to play Little League. But the powers that be said girls can’t play. Yet, Maria was not going to let herself be stopped. And Pepe with Jean L. S. Patrick showed how this could be done in The Girl Who Changed Little League: The True Story of Maria Pepe and Her Battle to Play Ball.
The story is simple: Girl loves baseball. Girl loves to play baseball. Girl is darn (only I didn’t say darn) good at baseball. Girl cannot play baseball due to the rules of the time. Girl fights to be able to play. There are the ins and outs of things being outlined on the page with the highlights of the events shown. We know what is happening via the text and the illustrations of Sarah Green. These images are strong, but not overwhelming and really hit a homerun with viewers.
And what was a home run with me is how the character Sparrow is portrayed in Sparrow Loves Reptiles by Murry Burgess and illustrated by Tamisha Anthony. Usually when you have a girl liking something stereotypically “not for girls” you get people saying things about it. Like, girls don’t play with reptiles, or girls shouldn’t like reptiles or girls shouldn’t get down and dirty with reptiles. And none of that happens in Burgess’s book, it is just a fact that Sparrow is female and likes reptiles.
To me, that’s bad-a$$ in a whole different way. We can enjoy something without having any preconceived notions about it. And with Sparrow I learned a lot about different animals and also wondered WHY in the world would they be walking around where copperheads are slittering about????? The rest of the story focuses on giving us just a little bit of information to whet our whistles and want more. This focus also happens with the bright illustrations that are a bit less realistic than not, but still are good for what is needed.
Due in March and April 2026 respectively, both books were read via online readers.