Spotlight on an Inspiring Book for Girls: “We are Girls Who Love to Run”

My daughter has a new favorite book. It’s one that I approve of very highly.

It’s called We are Girls Who Love to Run and is written by a mom and runner herself, Brianna K. Grant. If you love anything that can inspire a girl to believe in herself and do her best, then you will absolutely love this book.

When I first picked it up, I saw the beautiful cover illustration, but I still wasn’t sure of what to expect. So I read it with my daughter, who’s almost 3 years old. The pictures and story grabbed her attention from the start. It kept her engaged throughout and immediately afterward, she asked me to read it again right away. With the second reading, she decided to run circles around the room as I read it to her. She was that inspired to get up and run! (In fact, she wouldn’t even let me remove the book from her room to borrow it while I wrote this review!) But We are Girls Who Love to Run is about much more than just running.

We are Girls Who Love to Run is about a girl who discovers her outer and inner strengths through running. Written from the perspective of a young girl, we watch as she and her friends not only learn to love to run, but also learn to love how running makes them feel about themselves. As they run, we see that they not only gain strength and confidence in their bodies, they also gain confidence in themselves and develop an increasing inner strength and self-esteem. Here’s an excerpt:

I am strong. My body becomes more flexible as I run. My mind sharpens and my spirit soars. I offer help to younger children on the playground and ask for help when I don’t understand a homework assignment. I let myself cry as I wave good-bye to a friend moving across the country.

On each page we witness a different girl doing something positive for herself or for someone else—whether it is running, biking, helping a sibling with homework or helping mom  with grocery shopping—again and again we see girls making healthy choices for themselves and the long-lasting benefits of those decisions. Each page starts out with a girl making a statement such as “I am beautiful” or “I am strong”—declarations that every girl should say to herself and truly come to believe.

I’ve always been a believer that physical activity can benefit girls in many ways. We are Girls Who Love to Run is a testament to this notion that the more a girl commits herself to taking part in such an activity, the greater the chance she will become a confident, self-loving, strong woman. Girls grow a little bit every day. We are Girls Who Love to Run shows us that with every stride a girl takes on a track, her spirit makes even greater strides in life.

Author Brianna K. Grant

There are so many wonderful things about this book: the writing, the message, the illustrations (which were brilliantly done in watercolor by Nicolas A. Wright), and the fact that it is written in both English and Spanish, with text for both languages appearing on each page. After the story was finished, my daughter and I discovered a cool surprise at the end of the book: a page with quotations from girls and women ranging in age from 6 to 73. They discuss what running means to them and how it makes them feel—a really beautiful and touching way to close a beautiful book. While the target readership might be young, grade school-aged girls, I think this book truly appeals to ‘girls’ of all ages.

To learn more about We are Girls Who Love to Run, visit the Balanced Steps web site or order the book from Amazon.