Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX: The Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America

by Karen Blumenthal Narrated by Christina Moore

Overview

Did you know that state universities in Virginia turned away more than 20,000 women in the early 1960s, but not a single man was denied admission? In the 1970s, the University of Georgia men's golf team got all the golf balls they needed, while the women's team was allowed only one per round. Here listeners are treated to the origins of the historic Title IX legislation that, among other things, mandated equal funds must be available to boys' and girls' activities and interests. The seeds for Title IX were sown amidst the violent social upheavals of the 1960s. And through the perseverance of many women and civil rights advocates, it opened-and kept open-many doors for women beginning in 1972. A Junior Library Guild Selection and winner of the Jane Addams Children's Book Award, Let Me Play is an inspiring collection of stories about women fighting for equality. Read by Christina Moore, this rousing primer is the perfect introduction to a topic that will remain relevant for years to come. "A fascinating look at the birth, growth, stagnation, and final emergence of Title IX."-School Library Journal, starred review

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Three books demonstrate a host of individuals who offer inspiration. Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, the Law that Changed the Future of Girls in America by Karen Blumenthal, author of Six Days in October, explains how pivotal the year 1972 was for women, with both the passage of the ERA and Title IX. As Blumenthal points out, Title IX was not just about sports. She describes the law's impact on everything from basketball to science and math classes. Profiles of individuals give the dramatic changes a human face, from Myra Bradwell, the first female lawyer in America, to Ruth Ginsburg's valiant struggle to get into a law firm, let alone make it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. A Title IX timeline and a "Then and Now" contrast demonstrates how far females have come in American society. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-A fascinating look at the birth, growth, stagnation, and final emergence of Title IX. While acknowledging the controversy surrounding this law, the author is unwaveringly supportive of its passage and implementation. Interesting and easy-to-follow chapters highlight the process of creating, revising, fighting for, and ultimately passing this legislation that gave girls and women equal access to physical-education classes, gymnasiums, universities, and graduate schools. Human-interest stories personalize the issues, and photographs of congresswomen fighting for equal opportunities for girls, women demonstrating, and the ultimate victory-a woman on the cover of Sports Illustrated-show how challenging, yet ultimately rewarding, the battle has been. Charts depict amazing statistics about the increase in athletic participation by females from 1970 to 2001. Cartoons show the humorous but painfully true attitudes of our culture toward women as they have strived to achieve equality in this country. The book closes with a "Then and Now" section highlighting the changes Title IX has brought about. Lynn M. Messina's Sports in America (H. W. Wilson, 2001) and Victoria Sherrow's Encyclopedia of Women and Sports (ABC-CLIO, 1996) both offer bits of information, but nothing out there comes close to Blumenthal's portrait of the emergence of women athletes in our society.-Julie Webb, Shelby County High School, Shelbyville, KY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The history of the small but wildly influential amendment known as Title IX receives a thoughtful, enlightening and inspiring treatment from the Sibert Honor-winning Blumenthal. Her narrative begins with the story of Donna de Varona, the Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer who watched her male colleagues receive swimming scholarships to college even as her own career abruptly ended. From this miscarriage of justice to the present, the text compellingly lays forth both the legislative fight to enact Title IX and the struggle to interpret the rules subsequent to its passage. Although the revolution Title IX created on the sports field gets the majority of the attention, the author is quite clear in detailing the overall educational advances women were able to make thanks to Title IX. This really splendid story receives absolutely criminal treatment from the designer, however, allowing page turns and sidebars to split sentences over whole pages, resulting in a sadly fragmented effect. Magnificent backmatter, including a time line, "then and now" comments from key players, extensive source notes, and suggested resources for further information, complement the narrative in making this a nearly perfect book, were it not for the execrable design. (Nonfiction. 10 )

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170644063
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	10/31/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

Read an Excerpt

Let Me Play

The Story of Title IX: The Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America

---

By Karen Blumenthal

Atheneum

Copyright © 2005 Karen Blumenthal
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0689859570

---

Chapter One: The Champion

"I feel cofident that in the years ahead many of the remaining outmoded barriers to women's aspirations will disappear."

-- Eleanor Roosevelt, chairwoman of President John F. Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women, 1962

Perched at the starting blocks, about to compete for the United States at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, champion swimmer Donna de Varona gathered her thoughts.

Four years earlier, as a tiny thirteen-year-old, she had been the youngest member of the 1960 U.S. Olympic team. At fourteen she was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The magazine called her "without question, the best all-around woman swimmer in the world."

Across America many cities were in turmoil as African Americans rallied and demonstrated for basic civil rights. A few women were beginning to speak out for more opportunities.

But Donna's life was a blur of school and sport, including at least four hours of swimming a day, six days a week. Her dad, an insurance salesman, and her mom, who worked at a library, had sacriÞced so their second child could shine. The family of six moved to Santa Clara, California, from Lafayette so Donna could train at a world-class swim club. They scrimped to pay for coaching and trips to swim meets in Japan, Europe, and South America.

Donna's progress was remarkable. By her midteens she had broken numerous U.S. and world records. Most notably, she was the world record holder in the most challenging of swimming events, the 400-meter medley, a grueling combination of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle laps. Now, at seventeen, she was competing for the ultimate prize: Olympic gold.

Night after night, she had rehearsed this moment just before she went to sleep. "I've got my head on the pillow and I'm in that Tokyo pool. I say to myself, 'What have those seven years of work been for? You know you're in shape. There is no reason anyone should beat you.'"

Donna's first love had not been swimming, but baseball. In elementary school she hurried out after school to join the boys in pickup games. But when the boys moved up to Little League, girls weren't allowed on their teams. All she could do was collect the bats. She quit after one season because "being that close and not being able to play hurt too much."

After her older brother hurt his knee and began swimming as part of his rehabilitation, she followed him to the pool and found her sport. She swam in her first meet at the age of ten.

In the pool she grew into a focused athlete, determined, intense, and competitive. But on dry land she took great pains to look pretty and well dressed like the other girls. After practice in the morning, she would rush to the locker room and sit on the concrete floor, styling her hair under a hooded hair dryer while she ate scrambled eggs from a Thermos.

In the 1960s girls were known as the "weaker" or "fairer" sex, and they were supposed to be dainty, not strong. Very self-conscious about her muscular, sculptured arms, Donna hid them under long sleeves at school. "I really wanted to look feminine," she said.

In the pool, however, she was all strength. When the starter's gun popped in October 1964, she whipped through her two best strokes, the butterþy and the backstroke, and then endured the breaststroke. As she made the turn for the last leg, she let loose. "I just want to go," she said in Life magazine. "That's what I'm here for -- to get that gold medal, boy. It's free-style. Gung ho. Guts out."

She won, setting an Olympic record.

Donna returned home as a national hero with two gold medals, one in the medley and another in a 400-meter relay. The Associated Press and United Press International both named her "Most Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year." She was an athlete on top of the world.

Then, suddenly, her swimming career was over.

The best boy swimmers were offered scholarships to continue swimming in college. But there were no such scholarships for the best girls in the world. Few colleges even had any kind of women's sports program. Though she was just a high school senior, "there was no future -- no scholarships, no programs, no way I could continue to swim," she said.

Donna knew that if she wanted to be as successful in the world as she had been in the pool, she needed a college education just like the men did -- but she would have to pay for it herself. Society assumed that educating men was more important than educating women. That realization made her feel like her hard work had been discounted, "that what I'd won seemed somehow cheaper," she said. "It was a devastating feeling."

The experience made her determined to make a difference, to ensure that other girls wouldn't face the same discounted future. Many other women and men were beginning to share a similar determination. Across America too many women were being denied a chance to reach their true potential. Too much precious American talent was being wasted in too many areas. From California to Washington, D.C., they were beginning to call for change.

Copyright © 2005 by Karen Blumenthal

Continues...

---

Excerpted from Let Me Play by Karen Blumenthal Copyright © 2005 by Karen Blumenthal. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Videos