Third Quarter outside Reading Book Review

In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle by Madeline Blais. Warner Books, 1995.
Genre:Biography

In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle, is a true story about the girl’s basketball team of Amherst High School. For the past few years, the team had some of the best players making up the best team but would loose before finals. This book takes a look at each player, the town, the problems, and the victories that this team faces. The book was inspirational and interesting for anyone, especially a female basketball player.

The back of the book reads, “Engrossing….better that the best pep talk, this book will kindle your pride in your own unique, feminine strength.” – New Woman

The writing by Madeleine Blais was very relatable. She wrote like she was actually on the team and was inside the heads of each player and coach. I enjoyed this because it gives you a better feel of how each player was feeling at that time, and keeps you interested in the book.

One specific thing I noticed about the author’s writing was the way she would stop at points in the story and give more information. Blais would stop what she was talking about during a game or a bus ride, and give background information about where the team was or why they were discussing that specific matter.

“When they were really little, someone tried to shoot President Reagan, and was before they were born he played a dying football player in a movie that people liked to make fun of.” (186)

I chose to read this book because I am playing basketball in high school. Personally, I thought this book was great because I could relate to it in many ways. Besides also being a basketball player, I live near the town of Amherst and knew what was going on and what the author was talking about when she talked about places and events that occurred around the town. Overall, I would recommend it to many of my friends.