Best Basketball Books for Girls and Women
Basketball has truly become an international and gender-neutral sport. Enjoyed by millions of boys and girls across the globe, basketball has transcended from the streets of New York to become one of the most popular and influential sports in the world.
Below, we are going to take a look at the best basketball books for girls and women. While these books are not exclusively written for girls and women, they can provide inspiration, motivation, and the grit needed to elevate your game at any level.
Looking for more basketball book reviews? Check out our review on the best basketball training books!
My Shot: Balancing it All and Standing Tall
Where to Buy: Paperback, Hardcover, Kindle
Elena Delle Donne has always forged her own path. During her first year of college, she walked away from a scholarship and chance to play for Geno Aurriema at UConn—the most prestigious women’s college basketball program—so she could stay in her home state of Delaware and be close to her older sister, Lizzie, who has several disabilities and can only communicate through hand-over-hand signing.
Burned out and questioning her passion for basketball, she attended the University of Delaware and took up volleyball for a year. Eventually she found her way back to her first love, playing basketball for the Blue Hens, ultimately leading them, a mid-major team, to the Sweet Sixteen. She went on to become the second overall selection during the 2013 WNBA draft and the WNBA’s 2015 MVP.
Elena Delle Donne delivers a powerful and motivational story of overcoming the challenges of competitive sports through balancing hard work and the support of a loving family.
Dustbowl Girls: The Inspiring Story of the Team that Barnstormed Its Way to Basketball Glory
Where to Buy: Paperback, Hardcover, Kindle
In the early 1930s, during the worst drought and financial depression in American history, Sam Babb began to dream. Like so many others, this charismatic Midwestern basketball coach wanted a reason to have hope. Traveling from farm to farm near the tiny Oklahoma college where he coached, Babb recruited talented, hardworking young women and offered them a chance at a better life: a free college education in exchange for playing on his basketball team, the Cardinals.
Despite their fears of leaving home and the sacrifices that their families would face, the women joined the team. And as Babb coached the Cardinals, something extraordinary happened. These remarkable athletes found a passion for the game and a heartfelt loyalty to one another, and their coach–and they began to win.
Combining exhilarating sports writing and exceptional storytelling, Dust Bowl Girls takes readers on the Cardinals’ intense, improbable journey all the way to an epic showdown with the prevailing national champions, helmed by the legendary Babe Didrikson.
Lydia Reeder captures a moment in history when female athletes faced intense scrutiny from influential figures in politics, education, and medicine who denounced women’s sports as unhealthy and unladylike. At a time when a struggling nation was hungry for inspiration, this unlikely group of trailblazers achieved much more than a championship season.
Winning State Women’s Basketball: The Athlete’s Guide to Competing Mentally Tough
Where to Buy: Spiral-bound
COMPETE MENTALLY TOUGH!
Winning State Women’s Basketball focuses on competing. It shows players
how to take their mental game to a winning level.
Winning State instantly improves tournament performance. It gives players the
mental-toughness skills to eliminate distractions and crush apprehension, so they
can execute in competition as well or better than they do in practice.
Winning State is for all ages and abilities. It’s for players who consistently want
to bring their “A-Game” to the competitive arena.
Winning State inspires players to face the pressure head on, 100% believe, and
execute with conviction. Players get the skills to conquer the nerves, fiercely
compete, and win!
Your mind is your most powerful weapon. Train it!
In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle
Where to Buy: Paperback, Hardcover, Kindle
Originally published in 1995 to huge critical acclaim and a finalist for the NBCC Award for Nonfiction, Madeleine Blais’s In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle is a modern sports writing classic. Now expanded and updated with a new epilogue, Blais’s book tells the story of a season in the life of the Amherst Lady Hurricanes, a powerhouse girls’ high school basketball team from a small western Massachusetts college town.
The Hurricanes were a talented team with a near-perfect record, but for five straight years, when it came to the crunch of the playoffs, they somehow lacked the scrappy, hard-driving desire to go all the way. Now, led by senior guards Jen Pariseau, a three-point specialist, and Jamila Wideman, an All-American phenom, this was the year to prove themselves. It was a season to test their passion for the sport and their loyalty to each other, and a chance to discover who they really were.
As an off-season of summer jobs and basketball camps turns to fall, as students arrive and the games begin, Blais charts the ups and downs of the team and paints a portrait of the wider Amherst community, which comes to revel in the athletic exploits of their girls. Finally, a women’s team was getting the attention they deserve. And the Hurricanes were richly deserving; these teenage girls are fierce and funny, smart and ambitious, and they are the heart of this gripping book. In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle is a classic sports book, a timeless look at girls’ athletics.
Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women’s Basketball
Where to Buy: Paperback, Hardcover, Kindle
Reaching back over a century of struggle, liberation, and gutsy play, Shattering the Glass is a sweeping chronicle of women’s basketball in the United States. Offering vivid portraits of forgotten heroes and contemporary stars, Pamela Grundy and Susan Shackelford provide a broad perspective on the history of the sport, exploring its close relationship to concepts of womanhood, race, and sexuality, and to efforts to expand women’s rights.
Extensively illustrated and drawing on original interviews with players, coaches, administrators, and broadcasters, Shattering the Glass presents a moving, gritty view of the game on and off the court. It is both an insightful history and an empowering story of the generations of women who have shaped women’s basketball.
The Eye in Team: Cinderella Wore Sneakers
Where to Buy: Paperback
Meet Morgan Eye, a small-town girl who made all her dreams come true. Morgan grew up in tiny Montrose, Missouri, a town of less than 400 people with a graduating class of 12. But that never stopped her from dreaming big.
She wanted to be the best basketball player she could be. She wanted to win a state championship and then go on to play big-time college basketball. It seemed like something impossible for a girl from such an out-of-the way place that didn’t even have its own stoplight.
But Morgan never took no for an answer. With hard work and dedication — and a lot of help along the way — she lived out her dreams and set all sorts of records along the way. This is Morgan’s story, the highs and the lows, and all the challenges that face a young woman reaching out to accomplish her goals, both on and off the basketball court.