“Every athlete does their best…. Out and proud, their lifelong quest,” begins this lively, rhyming ode to queer athletes from the prolific Rob Sanders. From well-known stars like Billie Jean King, Greg Louganis, and Megan Rapinoe, to ones that many readers will encounter here for the first time, like weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, NASCAR racer Zach Herrin, decathlete Tom Waddell, and many more, the athletes (and a few managers, coaches, and officials) cover a wide range of sports, eras, and identities.
The book isn’t a collective biography per se, though. Each page simply offers a verse about a few connected athletes, such as: “Schuyler swam laps in the pool./Greg and Tom made splashing cool,” as bold, dynamic illustrations by Izzy Evans show them in action. For the picture book age range, however, this feels like a perfect approach to show young readers just how many queer athletes there are and to spark their interest in learning more, without overwhelming them with detail. Backmatter includes the athletes’ full names and a few bullet points with some additional information about each, for those who want it.
While I am often skeptical about rhyming children’s books (because not all of them need to be, and not all authors are good at it), this one works brilliantly. The rhyme and meter keep the narrative moving along like an athlete in action, and Sanders, an award-winning poet as well as a prose author, knows what he’s doing.
Backmatter also includes an author’s note that explains why coming out in sports can be hard, how to be supportive as a teammate or fan, and a glossary.
All told, this is a winning and highly recommended title that both tells us and shows us, “When you’re you, there’s no defeat.”
(I’ll also note that only a few of the many people featured in this book have standalone picture book biographies of their own. (Filter this database by the Picture book category, Biography, and Sports tags to find them, or use this link.) I hope that Sanders and other authors take this as inspiration for more.)
