OUT OF OUR LEAGUE is a fun young adult anthology showcasing the lives of girls in sports, a field so often dominated by men. These stories celebrate sisterhood, friendship, and sheer determination, through a diverse selection of sports and athletes. It’s a quick, empowering read, and overall enjoyable book.

Thank you to Feiwel & Friends and NetGalley for providing an Advanced Review Copy.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends publishers for allowing me to read an eARC of this title in exchange for a honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. Each of the 16 stories focuses on a different sport: Softball, Cross Country, Powerlifting, Soccer, Football, Cheerleading, Wrestling, Crew, Golf, Boxing, Wheelchair Tennis, Ice Hockey, Basketball, Sport Climbing, Volleyball and Archery. There is diverse representation throughout the book. Many of the stories are tied together through common locations, schools or character mentions.

I will definitely be purchasing this one for my students.

Content Warnings: language, attempted assault, death of a parent, COVID death, eating disorder, racism, sexism, misogyny, misgendering, toxic relationship, gaslighting, manipulation, blackmail, ableism

No sex. A few kisses

An inspiring read about so many amazing girls and women in sports! There's not enough books on this subject and this is an especially fun and educational one.

Dahlia Adler does it again! I swear that she only writes/edits/contributes to books that I needed as a kid and that I am so glad kids will have now. Plus, I am truly a sucker for a short story anthology…and then you add in that it is about girls in sports? I am IN! All of the main characters are faced with different obstacles but they are very relatable. The mix of sports by all of the contributing authors was really great, too. (Of course, this swimmer would have loved a story about a swimmer, but I loved the stories I got!) I had not read works by all of the authors (shoutout to Sara Farizan for being my reigning short story anthology queen) before but will definitely be on the lookout for their writing in the future. The diversity of the authors and the stories they tell is a breath of fresh air. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

This anthology started off great. I flew through the first 5 stories and felt so happy that these stories of young women were being told. But then I felt like the book lost its magic. The stories started to seem more focused on unique format (documentary script style and a sportscaster dialogue as examples) and including as many different types of representation as possible and less focused on the quality of the stories themselves. Some felt unfinished and others unsatisfying. I know this is the way of anthologies. You will gravitate toward certain authors. If I was a teacher still, I'd definitely keep this on my shelf because representation does matter, and a younger audience tends to like shorter stories. For myself as a reader it's just 3 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan for the free e-book ARC!

It is really exciting to see a number of already high profile and emerging YA authors participate in the creation of this unique anthology celebrating girls in sports. In ALL sports. There is truly something for everyone here when it comes to the sport being played (hockey, softball, tennis, wrestling, basketball, etc) and they kind of girl you see playing it (gender orientation, sexual orientation, ability diverse, race, etc). I love the highlighting of girls competing at the highest level against themselves, against others, and with others, building community and building the future.

While some of the stories were stronger than others, they all moved right along and are compelling as collective. Some of the authors did some cute through lines mentioning the names of athletes from other stories, I wish this had been done more so throughout the anthology, as it really added a layer of community and support to these stories that I found fun when I noticed it.

"Out of Our League," a captivating YA anthology edited by Dahlia Adler and Jennifer Iacopelli, delves into the trials and triumphs of young female athletes in a wide range of sports, from golf to wrestling. The anthology showcases the resilience, determination, and camaraderie of these teenage athletes, shedding light on their struggles against misogyny, racism, eating disorders, and toxic relationships. With diverse characters and compelling themes, this collection offers a powerful and long-awaited exploration of girls and sports, making it a must-read for all. The anthology features significant content warnings, including racism, misgendering, sexism, misogyny, eating disorders, toxic relationships, and more, while providing representation of POC, queer, and disabled athletes. "Out of Our League" is a valuable addition to any school library's sport fiction collection; however, I'd caution it for middle school readers and suggest high school and older.

#outofourleague
#netgalley

An absolutely delightful tasting menu of sports stories featuring teen girls (both cis and trans). There can never be enough stories about girls who are serious about sports, and who love sports. Thank goodness this collection of amazing authors has given us sixteen more stories to enjoy and whet our appetites for more!
I hope publishing is listening and finds more stories like these.

Dahlia Adler absolutely crushes it with her editing (and writing, but we'll come to that in a sec!). To gather and balance stories for anthologies is challenging, especially for an anthology of this type where stories and characters are at least somewhat interwoven, with characters from one story appearing in other works by different authors. Adler clearly is able to weave all of the different author's voices together to form a cohesive whole that conveys a clear message even when the stories have different tones, focuses, and styles. This is just the most recent anthology that shows that an anthology edited by Adler is always to be read. This is in no way meant to diminish the work of Jennifer Iacopelli (whose story I really loved as well) but also to highlight this trend.

Regarding the stories, I think the thing I appreciated most is that this isn't just focused on the sports we think about (football, soccer, hockey, basketball) and it's not only focused on professional sports! As a Jewish woman, I always love Adler's stories, but this one in particular made me remember my own days at camp really fondly. I also appreciated that there were stories of successes (the Hockey and Rock Climbing stories come to mind) as well as stories that deal with the darker side of sport (Cheerleading and Tennis...and Archery). Marike Nijkamp's story about archery, and passion vs. talent, and the role of gender in sport is achingly beautiful (and the right story to end the anthology). Whether you love or hate sports, I think that this anthology is about more than the love of the game, and may even encourage some to start watching a sport they might otherwise ignore!

I really loved this one--there's been a dearth of sports books lately, and I loved the different angles and different sports we saw in this. Some of them are slightly connected, or characters make cameos, and I'm okay with that but I wish it had been a continuous thing as every once in awhile I'd struggle to remember who was who.