Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
A girl named Dan
Picture Book
For ages 6 to 8
Sleeping Bear Press, 2008 ISBN: 978-1585363513
Dandi loves baseball and she has just been told that she can't play after school baseball with the boys anymore. They have decided that the game is going to be "boys only" from now on. Dandi is hurt and angry. She is a good ball player and she is never caught "napping like Wayne, or chasing junk like Roger did." She can't bear the thought of having to hang out with the girls at recess instead of being able to swing a bat and catch a ball with the boys.
Dandi loves baseball so much that when she hears that the owner of the Kansas City A's is hosting a essay contest to find a new batboy, she decides to send in an entry. She does not care that the rules say "For Boys Only." She writes a heartfelt fifty words and sends her entry in.
Basing her story on her own experiences as a girl, Dandi Daley Mackall not only shows her young readers what it was like to be discriminated against but she also shows them that one cannot accept defeat. After all, if women and girls had accepted the status quo, they would never have fought and won the battle to gain their rights.
Written from Dandi's point of view, this thought-provoking and meaningful picture book is a tribute to all those girls who refused to accept that they were less able than boys.
