Miss Mary Reporting: The True Story of Sportswriter Mary Garber

Pioneering journalist Mary Garber "got her big break" during WWII, running the sports page while the (male) sportswriters were fighting in the war. For much of the next six decades, she worked in sports reporting, blazing trails for female journalists. Macy's succinct text is informative and engaging, her regard for her subject obvious. Payne's soft, sepia-toned mixed-media illustrations provide the perfect touch of nostalgia. Reading list, timeline, websites.

"It seemed that Mary was born loving sports," writes Macy in this affectionate portrait of a pioneering journalist. Garber's father frequently took his three girls to sporting events, explaining the rules of the game ("He felt if you were a spectator, you ought to know what you were spectating") and fostering his middle daughter's interests in sports and reporting. As an eight-year-old growing up near Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Mary created her own family newspaper, the Garber News; later, fresh out of college, she landed a society reporter gig at a real paper, Winston-Salem's Twin City Sentinel. But it was during WWII that Garber "got her big break," running the sports page while the (male) sportswriters were fighting in the war. For much of the next six decades, she worked in sports reporting, blazing trails for female journalists. Macy's succinct text is informative and engaging, her regard for her subject obvious. Of Mary's toughness as a young girl Macy writes, "[She played tackle] football with the boys...over rough and rocky ground...and of course, she was the quarterback." Payne's soft, sepia-toned, mixed-media illustrations -- part Norman Rockwell, part caricature -- provide the perfect touch of nostalgia, playing with perspective to further develop character. Garber is placed next to much taller men to create a sense of her physical tininess, for example, or sometimes with her mouth and nose obstructed to highlight her too-big glasses and boyish haircut. An author's note, timeline, source notes, and "Resources for all ages" are appended. sam bloom