One of the biggest drawbacks facing girls and young women is the absence of athletic female role models. Children's and young adult fiction is an excellent vehicle for positive portrayals of the challenges and rewards of athletic competition. Encourage the girls and young women you know to explore the offerings held in your local library and available through bookstores.

Halfbacks Don't Wear Pearls by Mary Blakeslee (Richmond Hill: Scholastic Pub. Ltd, 1986)

Cristin Alsop Grade 9, Westdale Secondary School

Even in this day and age, people still have a hard time adjusting to women participating in sports. The number of women athletes is limited, possibly because of this very fact. The novel, Halfbacks Don't Wear Pearls, by Mary Blakeslee describes this issue while illustrating the importance of standing up for what you believe in.

The novel begins when Jane and the girls from her eleventh grade class challenge the boys to a game of football after a male student made a sexist comment. During the football practices, Jane begins to question the resistance she feels from family and friends as she comes to enjoy the game more and more. After the girls successfully beat the male team, Jane and her best friend, Patti, decide that they want to join the school football team. They quickly realize that in order to earn enough respect from the coach, they will have to resort to drastic measures for the privilege of playing on the team. With the help of a few football players, they concoct a scheme that will prove their competence on the field; however, it may cost Jane more than her cheerleading pom-poms.

I believe that this novel had good and bad points. The characters were slightly stereotypical, although I cared what would happen to them. In the beginning, Jane was portrayed as the perfect teenager. A blonde-haired cheerleader who loved to cook and sew. She changed significantly throughout the story and became more believable as she discovered who she really was. The plot held my attention and included many smaller sub-plots involving feminist problems. Sports and girls are portrayed together as an unusual combination. I thought that was poorly done because it alienated female athletes, although in reality there are many girls involved in sports. The main character, Jane, faced many problems and benefits as she became more athletic. Her family discouraged and teased her, believing she was unable to play football. Jane also had to sacrifice cheerleading to achieve her goals as a football player. The benefits included respect, making new friends, and learning more about herself. The benefits were definitely worth all the difficulties and the story had a fulfilling ending.

In the future maybe women athletes will not have such a battle. This positive novel strongly states that discrimination is wrong and will hopefully enlighten all its readers of the importance of being true to yourself.