Miss Football (2019)

“Gerda?” Asked Ninna as we strolled home from the corner store. “Do you think there will ever be football practice for girls?” I rolled the ball ahead of me while I thought about it. Of course I hoped that one day girls would be allowed to practice football, but I thought it was unlikely.

In the summer of 1980, nothing is more important to friends Gerda and Ninna than football and more football. When the sports association in town rejects these two talented thirteen year-old athletes because football practice is for boys only, they form their own football team, challenging a society that has not given girls the same opportunities as boys.

Miss Football is an entertaining and optimistic story for 11 to 15 year-old readers about friendship, solidarity, and determination. The Breidholt neighborhood serves as a backdrop for the story – it is buzzing with children and full of half-built houses. There are countless opportunities to have an adventure during a summer when television stations go on hiatus and the first female president in the world is elected.