2021, Children's Books, Geography & Cultures
WISE Score
Amazon
Before Serena and Venus, there was Althea—the Harlem street kid who crashed the country club party and walked away with the trophies.
4.0
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This isn't just another dry, 'important' history book that will sit on the shelf gathering dust. It's a punchy look at a woman who was essentially the Jackie Robinson of tennis but rarely gets the same spotlight.
It’s short, visually engaging, and shows that being 'tough' can be a superpower if you point it in the right direction. If your kid likes sports or stories about underdogs who don't take 'no' for an answer, this is a must-read.
Perfect for the 6-10 crowd. It's simple enough for a 1st grader to follow as a read-aloud, but the historical context is meaty enough to keep a 5th grader engaged for a school project.
It models resilience and the transformation of 'rebellious' energy into elite discipline. It doesn't sugarcoat her early struggles with school and fighting, which makes her eventual success feel earned and human rather than preachy.
As a biography, it's grounded in fact, but the illustrations and the narrative of breaking into the 'white world' of 1950s country clubs invite kids to imagine a world different from their own.
It's a picture book for elementary kids. While it addresses systemic racism and childhood truancy/scrapping, it does so in a safe, educational context with zero 'surprise' mature content.
High-tier history and character building. It fills a massive gap in sports history for most kids and links Althea's legacy directly to modern icons like the Williams sisters.
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