BRITTA LUNDIN’S coming-of-age story, LIKE OTHER GIRLS is at once tear-jerking and funny, thought-provoking, and real. Our preconceived notions about gender, sports, sexuality, and friendship are turned upside down in this tender and absorbing novel. LIKE OTHER GIRLS is about accepting yourself, accepting others and learning that there is no one right way to be a girl or to stand up for that right to be a girl in your own way.



“What if I played football?” I ask. As soon as it’s out of my mouth, I feel stupid. Even suggesting it feels like I’ve overstepped invisible line we’ve all agreed not to discuss. We don’t talk about how Mara is different from other girls. We don’t talk about how Mara is gay, but no one says so. But when I do stuff like this, I worry it gets harder for us all to ignore what’s right in front of us. I direct my gaze to Quinn. “What do you think?” “I think it’s frickin’ genius,” he says.



After getting kicked off the basketball team for a fight that was absolutely totally not her fault (okay maybe a little her fault), Mara is dying to find a new sport to play to prove to her coach that she can be a team player. A lifelong football fan, Mara decides to hit the gridiron with her brother, Noah, and best friend, Quinn—and she turns out to be a natural. But joining the team sets off a chain of events in her small Oregon town—and within her family—that she never could have predicted.