This dissertation examines nine narrative non-fiction picturebooks about Black American female athletes. Contextualized within the history of children's literature and American sport as inequitable institutions, this project highlights texts that provide insights into the past and present dominant cultural perceptions of Black female athletes. I begin by discussing an eighteen-month ethnographic study conducted with racially minoritized middle school girls where participants analyzed picturebooks about Black female athletes. This chapter recognizes Black girls as readers and intellectuals, as well as highlights how this project serves as an example of a white scholar conducting crossover scholarship. Throughout the remaining chapters, I rely on cultural studies, critical race theory, visual theory, Black feminist theory, and Marxist theory to provide critical textual and visual analysis of the focal picturebooks. Applying these methodologies, I analyze the authors and illustrators' representations of gender, race, and class. Chapter Two discusses the ways in which the portrayals of track star Wilma Rudolph in "Wilma Unlimited and The Quickest Kid in Clarksville" demonstrate shifting cultural understandings of Black female athletes. Chapter Three argues that "Nothing but Trouble" and "Playing to Win" draw on stereotypes of Black Americans as "deviant" in order to construe tennis player Althea Gibson as a "wild child." Chapter Four discusses the role of family support in the representations of Alice Coachman in "Queen of the Track" and "Touch the Sky." Chapter Five analyzes the ways in which Black female ballerinas are speaking directly to Black girl readers through the use of peritext in "Firebird" and "Trailblazer," and Chapter Six examines the representation of a shared sisterhood in "The Golden Girls of Rio." Ultimately, I argue that picturebooks that feature Black women in sports offer both harmful stereotypes and positive possibilities for Black girl readers. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]