Synopses & Reviews
Following one championship season in the lives of the Lady Hurricanes, a high school basketball team from Amherst, Massachusetts, this involving personal account offers a riveting portrait of contemporary female adolescence and the development of girls' self-esteem. From tryouts to the final buzzer of a championship game, Madeleine Blais captures the complexities of girls' experiences in school, athletics, and society itself as these young women fight to excel on and off the courts and in their own hearts -- an inspirational quest for success, glory, and respect.
To tie in to the WNBA season, here is the nationally acclaimed bestseller from a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist about the championship Lady Hurricanes basketball team of Amherst, Massachusetts.
"A beautiful book....The art of athleticism is depicted in its essence". -- Denver Post
"Flows like a novel.... These basketball players show us what women can do when they work together as a team". -- Atlanta Journal Constitution
Synopsis
They Were a Talented Team with a Near-Perfect Record. But for Five Straight Years, When it Came to The Crunch of the Playoffs, the Amherst Lady Hurricanes-A "Finesse" High-School Girls' Basketball Team of Nice Girls from A Nice Town-Somehow Lacked the Scrappy, Hard-Driving Desire to Go all the Way. Now, Led by the Strong Back-Court of All-American Jamila Wideman and Three-Point Specialist Jen Pariseau, and Playing beyond Their Personal Best, this is Their Year to Prove Themselves in the State Championships. Their Season to Test Their Passion for the Sport and Their loyalty to Each Other. Their Time to Discover Who they Really are. In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle is the Fierce, Funny, and Intimate look into the Minds and Hearts of one Group of Girls and Their Quest for Success and, Most Important of all, Respect.
About the Author
Madeleine Blais, a former reporter for the Miami Herald, is currently a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts. A collection of her articles, The Heart Is An Instrument: Portraits in Journalism, was published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 1992.