Splash!: Ethelda Bleibtrey Makes Waves of Change

Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection.

A powerful picture book biography of the first American woman to win Olympic gold in swimming.

Ethelda Bleibtrey was a girl with guts who loved the water. As a child with polio in the early 1900s, swimming set her free. The water released her from her pain and helped her build strong muscles—and a powerful spirit. "At rest and at peace with the world," is how she described her time in the water. From that place of peace, Ethelda began to find her power.

From then on, Ethelda made a splash wherever she went. From the New York beaches—where she was arrested for refusing to wear swimming socks. To the choppy waters of the 1920 Olympics—where she not only became the first American woman to win gold in swimming but the only woman ever to win all of the swimming events at any Olympic Games. To the Central Park Reservoir—where she was arrested yet again for diving in against a city ordinance, a statement that helped get New York City's children their first big public swimming pool. 

For Ethelda, doing the right thing sometimes came with a price—change often does—but Ethelda helped make the world better than how she found it. Splash!

Elisa Boxer is an Emmy and Murrow award winning journalist whose work has been featured in publications including The New York Times and Fast Company. She has reported for newspapers, magazines and TV stations, and has been working on this book ever since coming back home to Maine for her first job in television news in 1996. She is the author of numerous acclaimed nonfiction picture books, including The Voice That Won the Vote, and SPLASH!: Ethelda Bleibtrey Makes Waves of Change (a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection). Elisa lives in Maine and has more children’s books on the way.