Books About Women’s Soccer and the Players Who Have Changed the Game
The best women’s soccer players in the world are currently going head to head in Australia and New Zealand to see who will win the biggest international sporting event of the year. As we inch closer to the finals, check out these books all about the trailblazing women who are changing the game forever and the life lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Women’s soccer has come a long way. The first organized games on record — which took place three hundred years ago in the Scottish Highlands — were exhibition matches, where single women played against married women while available men looked on, seeking a potential mate.
Today, champions like Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach, Brazil’s Marta and China’s Sun Wen, have inspired girls around the world to pick up the beautiful game for love of the sport. Inevitably, given the hardships and discrimination they face, women who play soccer professionally are so much more than elite athletes. They are survivors, campaigners, political advocates, feminists, LGBTQ activists, working moms, staunch opponents of racial discrimination and inspirational role models for many.
Based on original interviews with over 50 current and former players and coaches, this book celebrates these remarkable women and their achievements against all odds.
A bruised shin, a bloody nose. Racing across the field into the arms of your teammates. Leaping high to save a goal. Getting up at dawn to kick ball after ball into the net. Making friends for life. Teaching your younger sister how to dribble. Sharing cupcakes at practice on your birthday. Going to sleep in your jersey. That’s what it means to be fearless, dedicated, confident, resilient, proud, persistent. It doesn’t matter whether you’re 3 or 63––that’s what it means to play like a girl.
“Kate T. Parker is my hero. She moves me. The whole world she has created moves me.”––Drew Barrymore
Recipient of the 2021 Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Medal
One of BuzzFeed‘s Must-Read YA Books of 2020
A Best Book of the Year: Cosmopolitan * Kirkus Reviews * SheReads * New York Public Library
“An engrossing #OwnVoices novel.”
—PopSugar
“This book will set your dreams on fire . . . It’s fabulous.”
— Reese Witherspoon
A powerful contemporary YA for fans of The Poet X and I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter set in Argentina, about a rising soccer star who must put everything on the line—even her blooming love story—to follow her dreams.
In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan lives a double life.
At home, she is a careful daughter, living within her mother’s narrow expectations, in her rising-soccer-star brother’s shadow, and under the abusive rule of her short-tempered father.
On the field, she is La Furia, a powerhouse of skill and talent. When her team qualifies for the South American tournament, Camila gets the chance to see just how far those talents can take her. In her wildest dreams, she’d get an athletic scholarship to a North American university.
But the path ahead isn’t easy. Her parents don’t know about her passion. They wouldn’t allow a girl to play fútbol—and she needs their permission to go any farther. And the boy she once loved is back in town. Since he left, Diego has become an international star, playing in Italy for the renowned team Juventus. Camila doesn’t have time to be distracted by her feelings for him. Things aren’t the same as when he left: she has her own passions and ambitions now, and La Furia cannot be denied. As her life becomes more complicated, Camila is forced to face her secrets and make her way in a world with no place for the dreams and ambition of a girl like her.
Filled with authentic details and the textures of day-to-day life in Argentina, heart-soaring romance, and breathless action on the pitch, Furia is the story of a girl’s journey to make her life her own.
Sports offer a vital path for children to get healthy, self-confident, and social. In Be All In, three-time Olympic gold medalist, World Cup Champion, and US team captain Christie Pearce Rampone and sports neuropsychologist and brain health expert Dr. Kristine Keane offer practical, real world advice on how to handle the pressures felt by youth athletes, parents, and coaches today and provide kids with their best shot at reaching their dreams.
In contrast to outdated adages like “no pain, no gain,” the ethos of “be all in” is about being authentically present in everything you do, on and off the field. Through a unique blend of neuroscience, parenting strategies, and wisdom gleaned from the extraordinary experiences of a world-class athlete, this transformative book explains how to create realistic expectations for kids, help them succeed in all aspects of their life, improve game day performance, and reduce the stress of dealing with their coaches, ambitions,and losses.
With invaluable insight into parenting behaviors that may derail children’s performance despite best intentions, and concrete strategies for teaching accountability, confidence, self-efficacy, and resiliency, this fundamental guide has tips to support athletes of any age, sport, or level of competition.
Inspire kids to be their best selves and get involved in social change with this stunning anthology about thirty-five amazing women in sports around the world and throughout history.
Do you play sports? Maybe you dream about scoring a goal on the soccer field or hitting a home run in baseball. Perhaps you’re thinking about trying a new sport, but you’re still not sure.
In We Got Game! you’ll meet thirty-five female athletes who played hard, broke records, and inspired girls around the world. Some of these athletes have retired. Others are still competing. But they have one thing in common: they all got game! You’ll read about the first woman horse jockey to compete in the Kentucky Derby, the number one tennis player in the world, a surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack, and a snow boarder who landed a death-defying jump, along with many others. These female athletes prove that girls can do anything!
Simone Biles * Gretchen Bleiler * Hannah Cockroft * Misty Copeland * Diane Crump * Sasha DiGiulian * Gabby Douglas * Grete Eliassen * Marlen Esparza * Lisa Fernandez * Althea Gibson * Bethany Hamilton * Mia Hamm * Jackie Joyner-Kersee * Billie Jean King * Phaidra Knight * Silken Laumann * Nancy Lopez * Tatyana McFadden * Ibtihaj Mohammad * Danica Patrick * Megan Rapinoe * Mary Lou Retton * Manon Rhéaume * Ronda Rousey * Wilma Rudolph * Junko Tabei * Dara Torres * Elana Myers Taylor * Marianne Vos * Abby Wambach * Maria Toorpakai Wazir * Jen Welter * Serena Williams * Kristi Yamaguchi
For fans of Brandy Colbert and Jenny Han comes a lighthearted novel about tradition, high school social hierarchy, matchmaking, and swiping right (or left!)
Fifteen-year-old Simran “Simi” Sangha comes from a long line of Indian vichole – matchmakers – with a rich history for helping parents find good matches for their grown children. When Simi accidentally sets up her cousin and a soon-to-be lawyer, her family is thrilled that she has the “gift.”
But Simi is an artist, and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with relationships, helicopter parents, and family drama. That is, until she realizes this might be just the thing to improve her and her best friend Noah’s social status. Armed with her family’s ancient guide to finding love, Simi starts a matchmaking service — via an app.
But when she helps connect a wallflower of a girl with the star of the boys’ soccer team, she turns the high school hierarchy topsy-turvy, soon making herself public enemy number one.
Mia Hamm’s speed, aggressive play, and ability to “read the field” helped her become the best women’s soccer player in the world. Her stellar performance as a college, World Cup, and Olympic champion made her a sports hero, and her story will inspire a new generation of young athletes. This comprehensive biography – with bonus photos and infographics – gives readers an up-close look at one of America’s greatest soccer stars.