Girls change the game: First game back by Gabrielle Gloury and Michael Hyde

When two AFL loving authors, Michael Hyde and Gabrielle Gloury reunite post-pandemic, to write their second Choose your own Adventure in the Girls Change the Game series, it’s ALL about  the Australian Rules Football. First Game Back focuses on the game play aided by illustrations of progressive scoreboards, team list and a field map of player positions.

The Westpark Scorpians U14 side have a new coach and one or two new players. Their first match back after Covid lockdown, is against The Riverside Devils.  But Coach Rita has coached them online to keep them fit and motivated during the hiatus – especially the team leaders - Zoe, Beth and Heidi. Dispensing with the twists and turns of human nature,  First Game Back is pure action. The question is, Can a  champion team really beat a team of champions?

It helps to know AFL jargon: ‘Ball goes up and Heidi reaches for the clouds.  A perfect tap but sharked by the Devils who have their own speedsters as well…” (p94)  Perhaps some purists will look-up the more obscure AFL terms?

To situate readers amongst the action, the choices of tactics mean that the reader steers the team down different paths toward victory or defeat. When deciding or voting (if reading aloud), we understand how the game can be changed by any one of the characters and particularly by the decisions made by the omnipotent umpire. The reader is learning about the unpredictability of cascading events based on each narrative choice.

You can’t critique literature in familiar ways when what is written down is more like sports commentary. This is reinforced in the following video clip where Michael Hyde performs a passage from Book 1. https://youtu.be/yUVWjyI_mWo?si=1G_AKiq7ysJBuTWm  

The teacher’s notes/activities provide interesting ways to avoid boring readers by composing action genre with insufficient details. 

Sport is THE Australian pastime and the old attitudes dividing girls and boys sports are vanishing. We are starting to appreciate diverse gender skill sets through more inclusive media coverage. Stories like Girls Change the Game and the sequel, First Game Back, attest to how much girls’ sport is gaining in popularity amongst young spectators and now readers.  (133p).

Themes: AFL, Sport, Choose Your Own Adventure,.

Deborah Robins