Author: Shana Corey
Illustrator: Rebecca Gibbon
Grade Level: PreK - 3rd Grade
Element: 5
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Summary:
As the men went off to serve in
the military during World War II, Phillip Wrigley creates a crazy plan to
recruit women to play baseball, despite public ridicule. On opening day, Katie
Casey, a member of the Kenosha Comets, shows fans and the country that women
have just as much talent as men when it comes to sports.
Players in Pigtails is inspired by the hit movie A
League of Their Own. This book takes a look at the All- American Girls
Professional Baseball League, created during World War II. The story focuses on
Katie Casey, who preferred "sliding to sewing" and "batting to
baking" and is mentioned as a "baseball-mad" girl in the song
Take Me Out To The Ballgame. Determined Katie makes it all the way to the big
leagues and finds a sisterhood of friends and players. This book discovers the
power that girls have and it reveals that girls can do anything boys can
do.
Element 5:
Social justice in essence
is about raising awareness of certain issues. In Players In Pigtails, Katie Casey raises awareness to an
injustice that has been common to women for a long time, which is sexism. Women
have been made to feel inferior to men in every way. So when it was time for
the male athletes to go to war that’s when women had their chance to show the
world that they were capable of doing more. Katie Casey and Phillip Wrigley
were successful in showing others that standing up for women’s rights was possible,
therefore raising the awareness of the country of the accomplishment of women.
Follow Up Activity:
Prior to reading Players in
Pigtails I would have the students think about the different types of
things only girls and only boys do. I would ask them what
characteristics they define as being associated as boy or girl and
write them on the board, hopefully drawing out the theme of sports. After going
over their examples, I would read the book. I would then lead a
discussion about how why women were thought of as being “bad” at sports and see
if they can change their definition about what girls and boys are “suppose” to
be like. Then I would love to create a PSA with the students raising awareness
of women’s issues and present it to the school.
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