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Sue Macy on CCBC-Net
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From: SueMacy1 at aol.com <SueMacy1>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 12:02:56 EST
Hi, everybody. Although I haven't responded to any of the postings this month, I've enjoyed reading them and even logged onto Amazon.com to buy a few of the books mentioned. I appreciate learning what everyone looks for in kids' sports books, both fiction and non-fiction. One of the reasons I started writing about women's sports is that there seemed to be very few books available on the subject in the late '80s and early '90s. Although things have improved somewhat, there still seems room for lots more.
I started working on my first book as an antidote to my job as associate editor on one of Scholastic's weekly news magazines. I became frustrated having only a week to research and write my articles, and wanted to find a subject I could really sink my teeth into, research-wise. I grew up a huge baseball fan (I particularly loved the Baltimore Orioles, even though I lived in NJ), and I majored in women's history in college, where I wrote one of my papers on three female tennis stars of the 190020 era. At some point, I opened a book called First of All: Significant "Firsts" by American Women by Joan McCullough (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980), and learned of the AllAmerican Girls Professional Baseball League from the 1940s. I was amazed that I had never heard of the league. I went to the closest college library I could find (at Jersey City State) and searched the Reader's Guide for articles on the league, which I found in Life, Time, and other magazines. Coincidentally, around that time, womenSports magazine ran a letter from one of the former players who was seeking others from the league. That led me to the women themselves.
I wrote Winning Ways because I wanted to get a view of the whole landscape of (U.S.) women's sports history--and I wanted to find some of the women whose contributions have been overlooked. For that book, I used fewer primary sources, although contemporary newspaper and magazine articles were important. I also read a lot of adult, often academic, writings on women and sports.
A big motivator behind both of my books has been my search for heroes whose lives and accomplishments are still relevant to me (and hopefully kids) today.
Macy SueMacy1 at aol.com Englewood, New Jersey
Received on Thu 21 Jan 1999 11:02:56 AM CST
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 12:02:56 EST
Hi, everybody. Although I haven't responded to any of the postings this month, I've enjoyed reading them and even logged onto Amazon.com to buy a few of the books mentioned. I appreciate learning what everyone looks for in kids' sports books, both fiction and non-fiction. One of the reasons I started writing about women's sports is that there seemed to be very few books available on the subject in the late '80s and early '90s. Although things have improved somewhat, there still seems room for lots more.
I started working on my first book as an antidote to my job as associate editor on one of Scholastic's weekly news magazines. I became frustrated having only a week to research and write my articles, and wanted to find a subject I could really sink my teeth into, research-wise. I grew up a huge baseball fan (I particularly loved the Baltimore Orioles, even though I lived in NJ), and I majored in women's history in college, where I wrote one of my papers on three female tennis stars of the 190020 era. At some point, I opened a book called First of All: Significant "Firsts" by American Women by Joan McCullough (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980), and learned of the AllAmerican Girls Professional Baseball League from the 1940s. I was amazed that I had never heard of the league. I went to the closest college library I could find (at Jersey City State) and searched the Reader's Guide for articles on the league, which I found in Life, Time, and other magazines. Coincidentally, around that time, womenSports magazine ran a letter from one of the former players who was seeking others from the league. That led me to the women themselves.
I wrote Winning Ways because I wanted to get a view of the whole landscape of (U.S.) women's sports history--and I wanted to find some of the women whose contributions have been overlooked. For that book, I used fewer primary sources, although contemporary newspaper and magazine articles were important. I also read a lot of adult, often academic, writings on women and sports.
A big motivator behind both of my books has been my search for heroes whose lives and accomplishments are still relevant to me (and hopefully kids) today.
Macy SueMacy1 at aol.com Englewood, New Jersey
Received on Thu 21 Jan 1999 11:02:56 AM CST
