Miss Mary Reporting

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Book Information

Category
Picture Book
Author
Illustrator
Publisher
Simon and Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books February 2016
Curriculum
  • Social Emotional Learning
  • Social Studies Curriculum

Mary Garber was born with a mind of her own and a love of sports.  Before she was knee high to a grasshopper she knew she wanted to be a reporter.  There was no Monday Night Football or ESPN when Mary was cutting her teeth as a cub reporter.  Those were the days when the hometown newspaper had the all-important scores of the games.  Everyone read the stories.

Those were also the days when women couldn't sit in the press box of a college football game or ener a locker room to get a good quote in the middle of the sweat and celebration. Imagine being a woman at that time.  Imagine how people thought you belonged in such small spaces doing such limited jobs.  Would you have believed you could do it differently or would you have stayed inside the lines of what they told you?

The rules did not stop Miss Mary.  She knew she wanted to be a reporter and she knew she wanted to be her kind of reporter. Miss Mary  looked at the world of sports through a unique lens and she brought  her view to her columns writing about the black athletes and their teams along with the white athletes and their teams.  People noticed.  She not only reported the scores, she created a culture of dignity and hope.

This is the biography of a defiantly determined and uniquely gifted sportswriter who happened to be a woman.  The illustrations by C.F. Payne turn back the clock and give us the experience of walking back in time to watch Mary at work.  It's a magical journey back into the past where Mary Garber is brought into our lives.  Another woman we'd never heard of who made a difference in the world by believing in herself and never listening to the rules and the messages that told her no.

978-1481401203  Ages 5-9  40 pages

Recommended by:  Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com

Read alike:  Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea: Marie Tharp Maps the Ocean Floor; The Kid From Diamond Street

Editor's Note:  Here's a quote from Mary Garber's nephew, Jonathan Brown:

"What was remarkable about her was not that she was the first woman to report sports. Nor was it her very long career. But it was her clear understanding that even though the stories of a high school or college game becomes yesterday's news in an instant, the individual coverage of an athlete's performance are important to the players. When we visited we would often be approached by a grey haired guy who would pull out his wallet and an ancient clipping of a story Mary wrote decades ago."

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