Girl Wonder: A Baseball Story in Nine Innings [Paperback]

Inspired by the life of pioneering female baseball player Alta Weiss, and dramatized by Terry Widener’s bold illustrations,Girl Wondertells the unforgettable story of a true American original.

Alta Weiss was born to play baseball, simple as that. From the age of two, when she hurls a corncob at a pesky tomcat, folks in her small Ohio town know one thing for sure: She may be a girl, but she’s got some arm.

When she’s seventeen, Alta hears about a semipro team, the Independents. Here’s her big chance! But one look at Alta’s long skirts tells Coach all he needs to know—girls can’t play baseball! But faster than you can say “strike out,” Alta proves him wrong: Girlscanplay baseball!Deborah Hopkinson is the author of numerous award-winning children's books, includingSweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt,winner of the International Reading Association Award,Girl Wonder,winner of the Great Lakes Book Award, andApples to Oregon,a Junior Library Guild Selection. She received the 2003 Washington State Book Award forUnder the Quilt for the Night.She lives in Oregon. Visit her onlinw at DeborahHopkinson.com.

Terry Widener is an award-winning illustrator whose picture books includeLou Gehrig: The Luckiest Manby David A. Adler, a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book and an ALA Notable Book, andAmerica's Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle, also by David A. Adler, a Junior Library Guild Selection. He is also the illustrator ofPeg and the Whaleby Kenneth Oppel andIf the Shoe Fitby Gary Soto. Mr. Widener lives with his wife and three children in McKinney, Texas.