South of Superstar

For fans of Hoops and the Pippa Park series, this sequel to North of Tomboy—set in the early days of Title IX—tells the story of a girl who dreads the changes coming to her body when all she wants to do is prove she belongs on a boys basketball team.

Jess really wants to play basketball in seventh grade. Unfortunately, it’s 1975 and the only school sport offered to junior high girls is cheerleading. Jess would rather stick a needle in her eye than cheerlead.

Then she reads about a girl who sued Little League and won the right to play baseball, thanks to some new law. But would she be brave enough to sue the school? Will she even live that long? Jess’s excitement about the possibility of playing basketball is overshadowed by her fear of growing up and a “premonition” of dying (because surely God would put her out of her misery before allowing her to become a woman).

Even so, Jess successfully lobbies her school to become the first girl allowed on the seventh-grade basketball team, where she and the new girl who joins her, Kat, discover that being on a team and feeling like a part of it are two different things. But Jess is determined to earn the respect of “The Runts,” aka her teammates. And now that Jess has basketball—and a friend—she’s not so sure about her premonition anymore. Maybe she’ll live long enough to prove herself after all.