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  • In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle

  • A True Story of Hoop Dreams and One Very Special Team
  • Written by: Madeleine Blais
  • Narrated by: Christina Traister
  • Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins

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In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle

Written by: Madeleine Blais
Narrated by: Christina Traister
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Publisher's Summary

“Beautifully written.... A celebration of girls and athletics.” The national bestselling sports classic from a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist (USA Today).

Expanded and updated with a new epilogue, Madeleine Blais’ book tells the story of a season in the life of the Amherst Lady Hurricanes, a girls’ high school basketball team from the Western Massachusetts college town. The Hurricanes were a talented team with a near-perfect record, but for five straight years, when it came to the crunch of the playoffs, they somehow lacked the desire to go all the way. Now, led by senior guards Jen Pariseau, a three-point specialist, and Jamila Wideman, an All-American phenom, this was the year to prove themselves. It was a season to test their passion for the sport and their loyalty to each other, and a chance to discover who they really were.

As an off-season of summer jobs and basketball camps turns to fall, as students arrive and the games begin, Blais charts the ups and downs of the team and paints a portrait of the wider Amherst community, which comes to revel in the athletic exploits of their girls. Finally, a women’s team was getting the attention they deserve. And the Hurricanes were richly deserving; these teenage girls are fierce and funny, smart and ambitious, and they are the heart of this gripping book.

“Extraordinary.” - The Baltimore Sun

“A picture of a changing period in American sports history, when a town rallied around its female athletes in a way that had previously been reserved for males.” - Publishers Weekly

©1995 Madeleine Blais. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

What the critics say

“[In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle] will satisfy your desire for a book with a sharp human-interest angle - competitive girls becoming women - and game-time excitement.” (New York Times)

“A special book.... Alternately funny, exciting and moving, the book should be enjoyed not only by girls and women who have played sports but also those who wanted to but let themselves be discouraged.” (Publishers Weekly

“A much-needed addition to sports writing for women.... Extremely readable and compact.... Compelling.” (School Library Journal)

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