Rating: Summary: THIS WAS AN OUTSTANDING BOOK!!! Review: Last season, our coach gave us the assigment of reading this book. At fist, we all thought she was crazy. But once we finished it, we were all really motivated and truly inspired. This book was one of the best books I've ever read. It's so inspirational, and I believe it's a real tribute to women's basketball- kudos to Madeline Blais for doing such a great job on covering the story of this extraordinary team! If you like basketball, you'll love this book. If you don't like basketball, you'll love this book, I guarantee it!
Rating: Summary: An anti-Cinderella story Review: Sportswriters often use the term "Cinderella story" to refer to an underdog team that makes it big. This book is an anti-Cinderella story -- and the reason why isn't what you might think. The result is a moral tale that every young woman, and everyone who cares about young women, should read.We all remember the story of Cinderella, but we tend to forget the details. If we think about it at all, we think about it as a "dream come true" story. We forget how it happened. Remember Cinderella: the virtuous one, hardworking, uncomplaining, sweet-natured, beautiful under her grime -- and also, deprived, mocked, neglected and shut out. Her dream is to go to the ball, an event to which she had already been invited, along with all the other young women of the kingdom. Somehow she manages to work a deal with her wicked stepmother that will allow her to earn what she's already entitled to: in exchange for doing a seemingly impossible amount of housework, she will indeed be permitted to go to the ball. Virtue, grit, and determination swing into action, but when Cinderella manages to accomplish her half of the bargain, Stepmom reneges on hers -- and Cinderella accepts the outcome and sits herself down in the ashes, giving up what she's earned and accepting what she's given. Not until her fairy godmother shows up and practically drags her to the ball does she get to dance; not until the prince hunts her down and shoves the shoe on her foot does she get her dream. I don't think the name of Cinderella is ever invoked in "In These Girls...", but the book could almost have been written as an antidote to the lessons of the Cinderella story. These are lessons that women and girls learn too well: that if you do all the work and have all the virtues, you can then shyly retire to the background, and your reward will seek you out. The truth, which the Hurricanes learn in the course of this book, is that after you have earned your reward, you must take the final step of reaching out and claiming it. A championship game is not a season, but it is where the rewards of a season well played are either claimed or abandoned. In reading the book, I came to love the Hurricanes, their coach, and their families. They are ordinary, and extraordinary, and they behave in ways that make it seem that the extraordinary is always within reach -- if only we can see it, believe in our right to it, and reach out to claim it for our own.
Rating: Summary: Hoped for More Muscle Review: This was probably a great magazine article before being padded out with geography and feminism history lessons. The story of the team and girls is great, but too much non-basketball stuff. Also more about the years they didn't win to set the stage would have been nice.
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