Great Girls: Profiles of Awesome Canadian Athletes

Liz Dennett is a public service librarian in the Science and Technology
Library at the University of Alberta.

“Welcome to the Land of Great Girls. This is a place where girls care
about being good athletes, but don’t ignore the rest of their life.”
So begins this homage-paying compilation of 17 true stories about
Canadian female athletes. It is written by former national team rower
and cyclist Laura Robinson and her 14-year-old niece Maija. They wrote
the book out of their frustration that sportswriters often shortchange
the accomplishments of female athletes.

Sports are portrayed as an important part of these athletes’ lives,
but the athletes are more varied than one might expect. Some are famous
Olympians, while others enjoy sports for recreation. Some are just
starting out, but others (like Nora Young, a national champion in three
sports) are still going strong as seniors. Many of the athletes have
faced serious challenges such as racism, hatred, prejudice,
disabilities, or being the first to do something (like Sonia Denancourt,
the first woman to referee international soccer). The stories relate how
the athletes have overcome or are working to overcome these issues. They
also celebrate underappreciated triumphs, such as Kendra Ohama and the
rest of the Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team winning three
consecutive Olympic gold medals and going undefeated for 11 years. While
the authors are closer to cheerleaders than biographers, their
enthusiasm for their subjects is understandable and infectious. Aspiring
female athletes will find plenty of role models in these pages.
Recommended.