This book is part of the lauded A Kids Book About (AKBA) collection (named as one of Oprah’s Favorite Things 2020), which began in 2019 with A Kids Book About Racism, and continues with volumes on other important topics that can be challenging to discuss. In this one, tennis legend Billie Jean King tells readers of the gender inequality she’s faced throughout her life and what she has done about it, encouraging them to create similar change in their own ways.
She begins with her childhood, noting that her parents supported her tennis dreams, “even when that was pretty uncommon for a girl. I always wondered why.” She also wondered why moms stayed home while dads went to work, and why no women played professional baseball.
Later, she discovered the word for this: inequality. And while things are better now, they’re still not equal. She offers some examples, such as unequal pay for the same job and a lack of respect and support, especially for women of color and those with disabilities. While inequality made her angry, she tells readers, she also decided to do something about it, working with other tennis players to make things more equal for the women who competed.
Even today, though, she says, boys and girls receive different messages about what they should do when they grow up, “and kids who identify as non-binary kind of get left in the dark.” She asks young readers to notice examples of inequality in their own lives and work to change things, “whether you’re a boy, or a girl, or are non-binary,” and she encourages grown-ups to support them in this endeavor.
Like the rest of the AKBA books, this one uses bright colors and a variety of fonts rather than pictures, keeping the focus on the words and giving the books a conversational feel. All of the AKBA books also note, “This book is best read together, grownup and kid.” It’s a great starting point for conversations about all kinds of inequalities.
You may want to pair it with one of the biographies of King for young people, such as I Am Billie Jean King or Billie Jean King (Little People, Big Dreams), or with books on social justice like Peaceful Fights for Equal Rights or No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History.
