No Girls Allowed: Inspired by the true story of a girl who fought for her right to play

Volume XXVI / Issue 4 - September 27 / 2019
No Girls Allowed
No Girls Allowed
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No Girls Allowed: Inspired by the true story of a girl who fought for her right to play

Author: 
Natalie Corbett Sampson
Halifax, NS: Nimbus, October, 2019
158 pp., trade pbk., $12.95
Grades: 
Grades 3-9
Ages: 
Ages 8-14
Review by: 
Aileen Wortley (Reviewed from Advance Reading Copy)
3
Excerpt: 

“We’ll be happy to have J.R. Our peewee team is a great group of boys.” Mr. Hickman switches the bottom page - mine - to the top. “And who do we have here?” His eyes move back and forth over the top of the page, then look up at Dad, and then back to the page. “This name, ‘Tina,’ is that a …girl?

Dad smiles at him and puts his hand out to rest on my shoulder, “Yes Tina, my daughter here. She’s very excited to play. “It’s been tough for her to wait until she’s old enough.”

Mr. Hickman looks at me, but it takes a moment before he smiles. His smile looks kind of like when J.R. is waiting for Mom to put rubbing alcohol on a scraped knee and he is trying to be brave. “I’m afraid we don’t have enough girls for a girls’ team. We tried a couple of years ago and only had six girls sign up. I’m sorry to say the interest is just not there.” He says all that to Dad. He’s not looking at me anymore.
“That’s okay,” Dad says and squeezes my shoulder. “She’s happy to play wherever she is placed. She just wants to play.”

“Yes, well, I’m afraid we don’t register girls to play on the boy’s teams.”

It is 1977. Tina lives for hockey. It doesn’t matter where, when or with whom – she just wants to play. As she turns 10, she can officially play team hockey in Toronto, but, when they move to a small town in Nova Scotia, the rules are different. She is distraught to find there are no girls’ hockey teams, and females cannot play on boys’ teams. Her father, a lawyer, recognizes the discrimination in this and takes the case to the Human Rights Commission. Until a decision is reached, Tina is allowed to play on a team, meantime suffering much teasing and ridicule, as does her brother by association.

Told in the first person, No Girls Allowed captures readers with its easy readable style as it leads them through the progression of events from Tina’s move to Nova Scotia until the courts decide in her favor a year later. Compassion for Tina’s predicament is compelling, making readers eager to know the outcome. There are astute observations, some evocation of the seventies and a gentle humor often provoked by Tina’s older ‘superior’ brother J.R. The book also brings awareness regarding the legal procedures of being part of such a case. Tina’s character is rather one dimensional, having no other interests than hockey and being in a constant rather unrealistic state of anxiety regarding her situation.

No Girls Allowed is a fictional account inspired by the true story of Tina Marie Forbes who fought to play hockey. Readers who may take such rights and freedoms for granted will be surprised to know how recently some of them were acquired. As such, No Girls Allowed is not only a good read, but it’s also thought-provoking book that will evoke much discussion.

Recommended
Reviewer: 

Aileen Wortley is a retired children’s librarian from Toronto, Ontario.