Astrid rolls her eyes as her mother takes her and bestie Nicole to a surprise "evening of cultural enlightenment!" Astrid knows what that means because in the past it mean poetry readings, opera performances and trips to the modern art gallery. The girls are amazed when Astrid's mom's cultural outing takes them instead to an evening of Roller Derby! Astrid is quickly obsessed with the derby and is quite taken with local Rose City Roller jammer "Rainbow Bite". At dinner after the derby, Astrid's mom shows the girls a flyer for a Jr. Derby League summer camp, and Astrid knows that is exactly how she and Rachel should spend their summer.
Unfortunately for Astrid, Nicole doesn't feel the same way. She'd rather go to dance camp than spend her summer skating. Astrid can't understand this, especially since prissy Rachel is going to be at dance camp too. The same Rachel who embarrassed Astrid back in first grade and had been giving her grief ever since.
Astrid goes through with Derby camp even without Nicole. She doesn't let her mom know that Nicole isn't going, even though it's Nicole's mom who is supposed to drive her home from camp! The first day is a disaster. Not only do all of the other girls look older and different, complete with dyed hair and piercings, but they all seem to know how to skate a whole lot better than Astrid does! Then there is the pain. Lots and lots of it. Add onto this the fact that Astrid has to walk all the way home in the blazing sun, and it turns out the Jr. Derby camp isn't going exactly as amazingly as she had imagined it.
Astrid's summer is filled with the ups and down as they can only be felt in the tween years. Keeping secrets, finding new friends, getting caught in a lie, and growing pains are all a part of Astrid's days at camp. Throw in some rainbow socks and Hugh Jackman voodoo dolls and the result is a graphic novel that hits the sweet spot for the 9-12 year old set. Filled with colorful and welcoming art,
Roller Girl is certain to sit on the shelf for the same number of minutes as books by Telgemeier and Bell. Do yourself a favor and get multiple copies.
I am not a fearless woman. I’m actually quite timid. I like order and predictability and rules. When I was a magazine editor, I started each editing task by making sure the fonts and margins and other formatting issues were right. Only then could I tackle the content.
I’ve been thinking about this lately because in the author bio of my most recent book, Roller Derby Rivals, my editor at Holiday House wrote, “Sue Macy loves to write about sports and fearless women.” And it’s true. Nellie Bly got herself committed to an insane asylum so she could write an expose. Cyclist Dora Rinehart rode more than 17,000 miles in 1896 through the muddy, rocky, mountain roads around Denver. Midge “Toughie” Brasuhn (right) regularly careened around Roller Derby rinks with no concern about injuries—and ended up with eight broken noses during her career. To me, these accomplishments are alternately inspiring and terrifying.
As someone who was trained as a journalist, I find it perfectly acceptable observing and writing about fearless women while remaining out of the fray myself. I am moved by women who have the drive and determination to overcome society’s taboos or their own fears in order to follow their dreams. I’ve listened to scores of women who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League talk about their motivation, and the common thread among all of them is the passion they had for the game. Over and over again, they’ve said, “They were paying me, but I would have played for free.”
When people are really passionate about what they’re doing, they grab my attention. At the start of my research on Roller Derby history, I went to a contemporary bout between the Garden State Rollergirls and a visiting team from Maryland. I barely knew the rules of the game at that point. What’s more, the announcer was muffled by an inadequate sound system and the action was so fast and furious that it was hard to follow. But one woman stood out. She was a New Jersey skater, covered with tattoos on just about every visible patch of skin, and she was magnificent. She wove in and out of the opposing skaters, lapping the field and then passing her opponents to score points. Her Derby name was Jenna Von Fury and her skill convinced me that Roller Derby was indeed a sport worth writing about.
Late last year, the computer search engine Bing produced an awesome TV commercial highlighting some of the female heroes of 2013. To the tune of Sara Bareilles’s song, “Brave,” Bing celebrated several fearless girls and women, among them the young Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai; marathon swimmer Diana Nyad; and Edie Windsor, who brought the Supreme Court case that that struck down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act. It was an impressive example of the never-ending parade of fearless women whose achievements have made an impact on the world, and a virtual shopping list of topics for a writer seeking to be inspired.
So as I finish my final post for I.N.K., I promise to continue producing books about women who made their mark as they challenged the status quo. I'll also occasionally blog on my Web site, suemacy.com. Check it out when you get the chance. Or follow me on Twitter @suemacy1. And thanks for reading.
The town of Cantonsville has it's fair share of weirdness going on. Not only are there rumors of the Man-Bat, but there's the witch lady on the other side of the woods, the legend of Crazy Ike, and one day when Minty and Paz are hanging out, Minty sees a creature in the woods followed by a flash! Minty crashes through the woods trying to find it. She loses the creature but finds a strange tree. It seems to be murmuring and when Minty reaches in the big hole in its trunk she finds a note that she quickly stuffs in her pocket to examine later.
Minty and Paz are best friends with some pretty big roller derby dreams. Minty, aka Minty Fresh, and Paz, aka Pax A. Punch, have been practicing their moves since they were 8 years old and saw the local team The Catonsville Nine in action. Paz, however, seems to be distancing herself from Minty in favor of things that are decidedly not roller derby: things like hanging out at the pool with Isabelle, and wearing glittery nail polish and barrettes. Minty's summer is definitely not going how she planned.
When Minty is walking down her street she sees that mysterious flash again and takes chase. This time she ends up at a model home next to the witch's house on the other side of the woods where she finds a boy. His name is Raymond and he apparently lives there. Like Minty, he knows about the secret filled tree, and like Minty he is in need of a friend. Soon the two are skulking around town, finding secrets by good old spying. But some secrets cannot be stuffed in a tree and forgotten. Some secrets bubble up and create a big mess before they can be made better.
Standiford has written an ideal summer read for the middle grade set. Perfectly paced and tightly written,
The Secret Tree is filled with mystery, family, friendship, and long summer hours. Readers are bound to start looking at people and trees through new eyes.
Highly recommended.
I hate it when I know a picture's really simple but I can't seem to get it right. I think I was just trying too hard with the drawing in my last post. That one took me, like, an hour, and this one took me about five minutes, and I think it's way better.
Photo from croctommy on Flickr
Phew, it's hard to draw my own sister! Too much childhood baggage, heh heh. I tried again today, and while it looks a bit more like her and took a bit longer, I'm not sure it's a better drawing. Anyway, I'll offer both drawings if anyone fancies some colouring in. Feel free to make changes to them, or dazzle us with your own drawing!
Photo from zzcoyote on Flickr
You can find a lot more photos over on the Rat City Rollergirls website. Burnett Down skated her last bout this past weekend, but congratulations to her for those years of giving the people of Seattle a great show!
Photo from beatnikside on Flickr
You can read more about the Rat City Rollergirls on Wikipedia, with interesting tidbits such as the time Starbucks was thinking of sueing them over their logo, saying they owned all logos that featured a circle with writing in it. Gotta luv that local business, what support.
Here's a documentary, Blood on the Flat Track, which premiered at the Seattle International Film festival in 2007.
And I fell in love with a roller derby queen, a fab song by Jim Croce. (My sister used to have this record album.)
The Brookeshelf recently mentioned that MotherReader's Anti-Celebrity-Writer organization BACA isn't the first BACA to ever exist. There are others including, but not limited too:
BACA: Boston Association of Cabaret Artists
BACA: Baltic Air Charter Association
BACA: British Association of Clinical Anatomists
BACA: Boston Area Coffehouse Association
and of course
BACA: Bikers Against Child Abuse
Reminds me of my favorite party game Beyond Balderdash where you're given an acronym and must come up with a silly but believable use for a random smattering of letters.
As to the last acronym, Ms. Brooke proposes that it would not be out of place for the kidlit participants out there to consider having their own biker gang. I shall offer up a Roller Derby Gang counter proposal. After all, it isn't like there isn't a precedent.
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