Dirt On Their Skirts

The Story of the Young Women Who Won the World Championship
By: Doreen Rappaport and Lyndall Callan (2000)

This story is about a championship game between two teams in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which took place during 1946. The game is narrated by a girl named Margaret who is cheering on her favorite team, the Racine Belles, who eventually beat the Rockford Peaches in extra innings to win the championship.

I thought that this book was really interesting because it told the true story of a women's baseball league that many people may not even know existed. I liked how the game was being described by a young girl fan because it showed just how much people enjoyed this league. I found it interesting to learn that this league was created to keep people interested in baseball while many of the male players were overseas fighting in World War II. I liked how the pictures really showed the emotions that fans most likely had during these games. The words used were also very descriptive and the made you feel like you were at the game and that you knew all about the players that Margaret was describing.

As I teacher I think that this book is one that I would definitely want to read to my students because it shows a side of the World War II time period that many people probably do not think about. I think that students would be really interested to learn about how women played baseball and how it was very popular. I think this would be a very empowering story for young girls to hear and it would show the boys in the class that certain things do not have to specifically be male or female activities. It would also be interesting to have students research about other activities and roles that had to be changed due to the ongoing war.