Member Reviews

One of the best Little People, Big Dreams books that I have encountered since I started reading the series. This book for children provided tons of information about King throughout its pages, and the reader could understand her transition from tennis player to activist without question.

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4.5/5 Great read to make kids familiar to word equity

<i>Little People, Big Dreams</i> is a series of short books for children about extraordinary people who change the way we're looking at the world. It's an enjoyable piece of non-fiction kids' literature to savor along with your tiny humans. I love biographies of people who dared to be different, and these short books are becoming one of my favorites.

I'm not an art-savvy person, so please forgive me to call this graphic style childish but I mean it in a good way only. Every page spontaneously puts a smile on my face because the illustrations remind me of all my favorite books from childhood I read with my mum.

The book <i>Billie Jean King</i> is significantly longer than <i>David Bowie</i>'s book I read before. Therefore it's more appropriate for 1–2G readers or read-along with parents for younger ones (but honestly, I read it myself alone, no shame here!). I prefer it to be longer, hence more informative and compelling.

Billie Jean King first was a little girl who really loved sports and then her lifelong passion made her one of the most famous American tennis players. The story touches so important issues like sex equity, women's rights, and LGBTQ+ movement in an easy, comprehensive for children way.
I learned a lot here, and so my son. We both loved that book.

<i>The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

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The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The ‘My First Little People, Big Dreams’ series provides informative and inspirational biographies about people who left a mark on this earth, no matter what difficulties they have encountered.
These stories are very short, but that’s because they’re books for children, so it’s totally understandable.
I think they are a very smart and wonderful way to introduce little children to such important figures.
This little one here is about Billie Jean King, one of the most successful women in sports history. I have to admit I'm a bit of an ignorant when talking about tennis, so I knew very little about her life. Therefore, I was really curious to discover more about her achievements and battles. I think she's a very inspiring figure for kids, because her experience teaches them how important breaking barriers is.

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I still love this board series and I like how it talks about people in sports as well. Billie Jean King was a pioneer for girls in sports when she decided to break barriers and play tennis the way it was meant to be played. She broke barriers by wearing shorts instead of skirts and played against a guy during the Battle of the Sexes.

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My daughter got a huge kick out of this book. It was simple enough for her to read with a bit of awesome girl power to be inspired from. LOVE IT!

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I'm really enjoying all the books in this series and this was no exception. I loved learning things I didn't know about Billie Jean King.

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This was a fine entry into this series. I didn't think it did the best job of really explaining what Billie Jean King did for women in tennis and why it was important, and it really glossed over that she's a lesbian which it shouldn't have done, in my opinion.

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Another mixed result in this series that brings the world's over-achievers to the attention of the young. The artwork certainly does Billie Jean no favours, making her an indeterminate age throughout, and a bit of a chunky-thighed minger, if the truth be known. It covers her activism alongside her tennis career – I didn't know she was behind the WTA herself. I did know she'd won the second Battle of the Sexes – a match that is actually still debated, although she remains the only woman to have won one, and the only winner of any Battle that notched up three sets while doing so. So I guess I ought to stick to my rules and applaud the book for the young that taught the ageing me something, but I still can't say I loved this, for the style and for the inbuilt brevity with which it races through King's life to date. Still, three and a half stars is better than some of the other entrants to this huge series have achieved before now.

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Ironically, I'm reading a cute little book about a strong women around International Women's Day! Not on purpose, but still totally amusing.

Billie Jean King by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara is a lovely little tale about the amazing tennis player Billie Jean King. We get to see her amazing story of working hard to achieve her goals to be the best tennis player she could be! She wore shorts instead of skirts, saved up her own money to buy her own supplies and worked her butt off! She won awards for her hard work, started community organizations and was just all around awesome!

My pros:
1. The pictures are soft, full of colour and memorable. I really liked how they stood out and complimented the story.

2. This book was easy to read but had strong enough language that a few age groups could easily find this book enjoyable. On top of that, I'm sure many adults can be sent into flashbacks about The Battle of the Sexes tournament that happened in the Tennis World!

3. We get to see a little girl who worked hard (gardened and did housework) to save up her money to get her first tennis racquet! Isn't it great we get to share with the kids some hard working kids books?!

4. The tennis outfits are rocking!

My cons:
1. Sometimes the soft lines of the illustrations felt like they blurred a bit, but that could be because I was on an e-reader.

Overall, this book is an absolute delight and I'd highly recommend it! Who doesn't want to watch an awesome woman do awesome things? Let's show our kids hard work pays off! Also, I would love to read the many other parts of this collection about all of the other cool people (women and men alike) who are apart of this series!

Five out of five stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for this amazing opportunity to pick up this lovely book!

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I'd always heard of Billie Jean, but didn't know much beyond the fact that she was a tennis player. In just a few pages, this book was able to give a good sweep of her life and contributions. That's what I love about this series. Thanks for helping me learn!

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A worthy addition to the series

Another wonderful and inspiring addition to the "Little People Big Dreams" Series. As the books in this series are hit or miss sometimes, I am glad to see this one is one of the "hits"! Billie Jean King was a wonderful tennis player and important women’s and LGBT rights activist. Her story is definitely one to be told and can serve to inspire children (and adults) to follow their dreams and not give up. The book is beautifully illustrated and captivating. One of the better ones of this series!

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Beautiful, inspiring book for children about tennis legend, Billie Jean King! I loved the colorful illustrations and the author does a great job of succinctly summarizing King's life and impact in tennis and gender equality. This book will be great for all kids, but especially ones interested in playing sports. This book is best for readers, age 4-7.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this ARC.

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Billie Jean King; another female star of tennis to find themselves in this wonderful series: little people, big dreams. Born into a sports loving and participating family, she liked nothing better than to be running around and competing. She had natural hand eye co-ordination and found herself a big hitter in junior softball. Realism ,was a factor in her advancement, since beyond their young mixed teams the game progressed to only boys and men competitions. Along the way she found tennis. Saving up to buy a decent racquet and sought out free lessons from a professional tennis coach.
She rapidly became the best and found her way into pursuing a career in competitive tennis. She had ambition and a desire to be the best. Her dedication in sport also taught her valuable lifeskills and would enable her to reach the very top in her sport.
In the process she challenged and changed the perceived structures where gender counted against women in areas like obtaining a college scholarship, general opportunity and equality in prize money.
She lived out her beliefs and like her sporting ambitions which she achieved Billie Jean King spoke up and made possible a more equal playing field, or tennis court for women.
A tennis hero of mine watching Wimbledon, but a champion across all she did, to ensure she not only found the means to play tennis but that others in later years would have less obsticles, discrimination and unfair systems to overcome.

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I truly enjoy this series of biographies for kids. This particular book introduces us to Billie Jean King, world famous tennis player and activist. I enjoyed the snippets of information about her life and what she’s done for women’s tennis. I believe this is a wonderful addition to this series. I was given this ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Billie Jean King by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara is another stellar addition to the Little People BIG DREAMS series. This time, we explore the life of Billie Jean King, the tennis legend who made tremendous strides in advancing the equal rights of women in sport. As per usual, the author provides a condensed, yet thorough, account of a figure in history who will surely spark interest in even the youngest of readers.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group - Frances Lincoln Childrens for the opportunity to read this ARC.

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Once again a cute short book about an absolute icon who stood up for equal rights. I also enjoyed the art style that was chosen for this story. This entire book series is a small blessing to this world and I am going to buy more of them in the future.

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This is another one in the stories of famous people for the very young. And as usual, the author does a great job. The story is easy to follow, and explains the sexism very well. I remember the Billie Jean tournament. Hard to believe it was that long ago.

<img src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/billy-jean-king.png" alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5613" />

So glad these books are out there, and I love how varied the women written about are.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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Another classic Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara book, inspiring little people with the stories of great people, I really think schools and libraries should stock these so little ones can be inspired early as possible, beautifully illustrated and captivating

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

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This series is always a joy to read, it’s a really nice introduction to well known people for little children. Of course the plot is always a little bit fast but that’s to be expected and it’s totally understandable.
As a fan of tennis, I already knew quite a bit about Billie Jean King, but it was still nice and fun to read about her life in this new story. She did a lot for women in sports and equality and I'm happy to see that she was included in the Little People, Big Dreams series. I believe she's a great example for children.

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