 | This skirt won't work! : how women athletes changed their clothes and changed the game Author: Cooper, Jennifer | |
| Price: $14.24 | ||
Summary:
Meet five trailblazing women in sports who cast aside the stuffy, confining outfits they were expected to wear in favor of clothes they could move in!
| Illustrator: | Byrne, Eva |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (11/01/25)
School Library Journal (00/10/25)
Booklist (11/01/25)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (00/11/25)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 11/01/2025 Leading off with Kittie Knox, a Black bicyclist of the 1890s who switched from cumbersome skirts to leg-freeing knickerbockers, Cooper offers a spirited tribute to competitive women who likewise reached the titular conclusion and found or invented more practical garb. Her international roster includes Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman (“This Lace Won’t Race!”), Canadian ice hockey star Albertine LaPensée (“These Jocks Hate Frocks”), tennis and soccer players, and in an afterword that brings the struggle into the twenty-first century, several other examples, including women in hijab and a Norwegian beach handball team that drew a fine (boo!) and then a rule change (huzzah!) in 2021 for wearing shorts instead of the regulation bikini bottoms. On the endpapers and throughout, Byrne mixes images of figures in before-and-after period fashions with women, including para-athletes, dressed in updated wear for diverse sports. In the ongoing battle for gender equality in sports, here’s one heartening—and perhaps under-recognized—victory. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.
