Let Me Play

Blumenthal, K. (2005). Let me play. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

This Non-Fiction chapter book is sure to be a hit with middle to high school girls, especially those who participate in clubs and sports.  I can’t say that the boys will want to read this one but it is very interesting to hear the real facts about Title IX.  As a 27 year old, who grew up playing sports, I can remember when I first heard of Title IX in high school, the biggest thing that was that Friday night basketball games could no longer just be for the boys, the girls and boy varsity teams now had to share the Friday night spotlight! I knew there had to be more to Title IX and that it had to do with equality between girls and boys but I for the most part felt that everything was now equal, but that wasn’t the case for my mom when she was in school in the late 60’s. 

Karen Blumenthal’s Let Me Play, The story of Title IX, gives accurate details of rights of women starting in the late 1800’s up until now! Most of the changes in women’s rights (in education and sports) have been made since the early 1970’s when Title IX was first introduced.  The book includes pictures of famous women who helped fight for the rights that females have today.  It would be easy in a book of this nature to include stereotypes, but I couldn’t find a single one! It’s just the real stories and facts!

The facts and stories are presented in chronological order.  There is a graphic element of some sort on almost every other page from highlighted real life stories, to real comic strips, to statistics presented in graphs and charts! The statistics I find most interesting come in the “Scorecard” tables that are included and updated by date throughout the book comparing the number of males and females participating in sports and higher education  from the 1970’s to the 90’s to now! Wow the numbers of females participating has sky-rocketed and today, women are just about even with men!  Other important elements of the book include the Title IX Timeline of the most important facts by date from 1848 to 2003, there is also a section of quotes that compare quotes in history to what people are saying now.

This could be used as an excellent resource while studying women's rights, or just a great motivating book for young girls to read! Young girls could make connections between their lives and how Title IX has possibly changed their outcomes from the way things could have been.