A Girl Called Hank

Walden wrote a lot of books, including mysteries and adult fiction, but her teen books often have to do with girls' sports, particuarly basketball. This is a very typical book for its era but also very enjoyable.

Hank (Henrietta) Baxter, a tomboy who's grown up playing basketball with four brothers, is the star of the team. Two plots develop: the attentions of Greg, who is on the school newspaper (he's on the college track, the book notes, while Hank, who wants to run her father's lumber company someday, nevertheless doesn't plan on anything beyond secretarial school) and the hiring of a new coach, Miss Dorn, a former tennis star from California. Hank gives Greg short shrift for awhile, but eventually succumbs to the attentions of her mother and sister-in-law and gets dressed up for a date with him. Miss Dorn, who has been hired in spite of the fact she seems to have no experience as a coach, lost her tennis career to a hand injury and is now a "bitter, twisted" person. She takes a dislike to Hank, and the feud between them divides the team.

The two plots resolve in satisfactory, if predictable, manners. Hank adds the ability to consider her own appearance to her formidable basketball skills, and, after grudging truce with Miss Dorn, learns the importance of zone defense and set plays. And in the final few pages, now that basketball season is over, the prospect of going to the prom is raised, as well as, yes, a wedding. Hank's love of basketball and her interest in being a businesswoman are so solidly established, however, that these seem more like tentative pipings than real indications of her future.

Reviewed on my blog: http://theparishat.blogspot.com/2012/02/title-girl-called-hank-author-amelia.htm... ( )