Baseball's Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues

by Andrea Williams (Author)

Baseball's Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

For fans of Hidden Figures and Steve Sheinkin's Undefeated, Andrea Williams's Baseball's Leading Lady is the powerful true story of Effa Manley, the first and only woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947, Black athletes played in the Negro Leagues--on teams coached by Black managers, cheered on by Black fans, and often run by Black owners.

Here is the riveting true story of the woman at the center of the Black baseball world: Effa Manley, co-owner and business manager of the Newark Eagles. Elegant yet gutsy, she cultivated a powerhouse team. Yet just as her Eagles reached their pinnacle, so did calls to integrate baseball, a move that would all but extinguish the Negro Leagues.

On and off the field, Effa hated to lose. She had devoted her life to Black empowerment--but in the battle for Black baseball, was the game rigged against her?

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Kirkus Reviews

A smart and determined woman becomes an unlikely influence in baseball's Negro Leagues . . . A fascinating contribution to baseball and racial history.

ALA/Booklist

A well-organized, detailed introduction to Effa Manley, who was the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Review quotes

 

"With a flair for bringing clarity and excitement to back office wheeling and dealing, Williams offers a potent complement to Nelson's We Are the Ship." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

 

Andrea Williams
Andrea Williams is an author and journalist who worked in marketing and development for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in her hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, before turning to writing full-time. She now lives and writes in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and four children.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9781250623720
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Roaring Brook Press
Publication date
January 20, 2021
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF018010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | People & Places | United States - African-American
JNF007110 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Social Activists
JNF054010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Sports & Recreation | Baseball & Softball
JNF007120 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Women
JNF007100 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Sports & Recreation
Library of Congress categories
History
African Americans
United States
Women
African American women
Baseball
Negro Leagues
Women baseball team owners
Manley, Effa
Newark Eagles (Baseball team)
Baseball team owners

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