After I get through the kids’ and juvenile fiction books about just having fun on roller skates, all the books that are YA or adult seem to be about roller derby teams. So I figured I ought to know the basics. I’ve seen a few films about roller derby, and the action is so fast it’s hard to keep track of what’s going on and I didn’t quite get it. Well, now I do- it’s pretty simple actually. This book outlines the basic rules of play, and tells about the history of the sport. It used to be more of a race, and played on banked tracks (now most leagues use flat tracks). And in the 40’s when women’s roller derby was popular on television, they were pretty rough- fights were the norm! So it was fun to learn a bit more, even though I have no intention myself of playing roller derby. I have to say though, I was instantly jealous when on the first pages I read about a junior girls’ league that practices in Seattle in a big empty warehouse. How I’d love to have access to that kind of space! (Nearest roller rink to me is a forty minute drive- a bit much to go multiple times per week). That junior league wasn’t around when I was a kid (started in 2007) and I doubt I would have had the interest back then, but still!
This book is from a juvenile non-fiction series that aims to inform about sports that are “just a bit outside the mainstream” including, on their list of other titles- dodgeball, ultimate frisbee and quidditch. Well, now I’m curious about that too (who actually plays it IRL?)
Borrowed from the public library.
