Out of Left Field
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A story about the fight for equal rights in America's favorite arena: the baseball field!
Every boy in the neighborhood knows Katy Gordon is their best pitcher, even though she's a girl. But when she tries out for Little League, it's a whole different story. Girls are not eligible, period. It is a boy's game and always has been. It's not fair, and Katy's going to fight back. Inspired by what she's learning about civil rights in school, she sets out to prove that she's not the only girl who plays baseball. With the help of friendly librarians and some tenacious research skills, Katy discovers the forgotten history of female ball players. Why does no one know about them? Where are they now? And how can one ten-year-old change people’s minds about what girls can do?
Set in 1957—the world of Sputnik and Leave It to Beaver, saddle shoes and "Heartbreak Hotel"—Out of Left Field is both a detailed picture of a fascinating historic period and a timelessly inspiring story about standing up for equality at any age.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ten-year-old Kathleen Curie Gordon's knuckling curveball is so good it wins her a Little League tryout wearing her cap, Katy can pass as a boy. She makes the team but is outed by another player's parent; it's 1957 and league rules expressly prohibit girls. Klages interweaves Katy's story with the current events she's studying in fifth grade: the space race, desegregation, and the move of the Giants from New York to San Francisco, where they displace Katy's favorite team, the minor league Seals. When Katy decides to write her history paper on women in baseball (in part to refute the league official's claim that baseball "has always been the sole province of male athletes"), she uncovers a trove of information about female stars. Katy's mom, a chemistry professor who has faced her own discrimination battles, is particularly well drawn, as she empowers her daughter to fight injustice. By the time she affirms, "Other people's rules about what girls can and cannot do have never applied in this house," whether Katy gets to play or not is somewhat less important than what she has learned about resistance. Ages 8 12.
