Don't despair of Disney heroine-dazzled small girls, there are lots more feisty female role models to capture their imagination in children's fiction
I am a literary aunt and I'm terrified my Disney-princess-loving niece will have highly distorted views of women, body image and life in general if her brain is fed nothing but Disney! She's two years old and I'm looking for some books with alternative, more positive female role models in them. Do you know of any which are suitable for a two year old? Even if there are some for ages 5+ I can at least hoard them now and give them to her in years to come.
Charlotte
You are not alone in your fears. Many others feel the same and, to make matters worse, it is not a new problem. However, it is one that it seems hard to eradicate and, long before Disney, gender stereotyping in children's books was widespread. Strong girl characters such as Nancy and Peggy, the delightfully imaginative, resilient and utterly convincing "Amazons" in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons and its sequels stand out not only because they are so engaging but also because they were so rare at the time. Within picture books, girls were typically quieter and more gentle, learning their role as supporter and follower or practising their female skills. With its emphasis on how you behave rather than how you look it was a different kind of distortion but just as pernicious.
However, as with Arthur Ransome there have always been exceptions. In Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, the first of Edward Ardizzone's stories about a little boy who runs away to sea to escape the stupefying restrictions imposed on him by his well-meaning but over-anxious aunts, Tim acts alone but in the subsequent title, Tim and Lucy go to Sea, Tim is joined by Lucy who shares the adventures when the boat they are on is taken over by mutineers.
Two of the best girls in picture books are Madeline, the eponymous heroine of Ludwig Bemelman's series of titles. The first, simply called Madeline, introduces her as the smallest of the 12 girls living in a boarding school in "an old house in Paris all covered in vines" and the bravest. Madeline is not afraid of anything and, when she has her appendix out, she is incredibly brave. Although Madeline is seven, the rhyming text and wonderful illustrations make it suitable – and inspirational and influential - for reading to much younger children.
Eloise, the heroine of Kay Thompson's picture books, has a quite different background; she lives on the top floor of the Plaza in New York where she is looked after by an English nanny. She is probably a spoilt brat but she is also feisty, independent and charmingly rule breaking. Lucy, Madeline and Eloise are from a long time ago but the books in which they feature remain core titles in terms of strong girl characters.
More recently (and don't worry too much that they are animals) there's Sheila Rae, the Brave by Kevin Henks and Olivia by Ian Falconer – a mouse and a pig respectively but great girls underneath it. And there's Lauren Child's Lola who first appeared in I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato with her older and very patient brother Charlie. Lola and Charlie are now stars of children's TV as well as many more books. While Lola may not be a perfect role model in terms of behaviour, the imaginative playfulness of the stories and the delightful interactions between the siblings should capture your niece's imagination far more than Disney.
Looking further ahead, your niece will come across Philip Pullman's brave, rash and clever Lyra in His Dark Materials, super-bright Hermione in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and its many sequels and, perhaps the toughest heroine of them all, Katniss Evergreen from The Hunger Games among many others. I'm sure she will learn how to re-evaluate Disney when she needs to. Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 days ago.
I am a literary aunt and I'm terrified my Disney-princess-loving niece will have highly distorted views of women, body image and life in general if her brain is fed nothing but Disney! She's two years old and I'm looking for some books with alternative, more positive female role models in them. Do you know of any which are suitable for a two year old? Even if there are some for ages 5+ I can at least hoard them now and give them to her in years to come.
Charlotte
You are not alone in your fears. Many others feel the same and, to make matters worse, it is not a new problem. However, it is one that it seems hard to eradicate and, long before Disney, gender stereotyping in children's books was widespread. Strong girl characters such as Nancy and Peggy, the delightfully imaginative, resilient and utterly convincing "Amazons" in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons and its sequels stand out not only because they are so engaging but also because they were so rare at the time. Within picture books, girls were typically quieter and more gentle, learning their role as supporter and follower or practising their female skills. With its emphasis on how you behave rather than how you look it was a different kind of distortion but just as pernicious.
However, as with Arthur Ransome there have always been exceptions. In Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, the first of Edward Ardizzone's stories about a little boy who runs away to sea to escape the stupefying restrictions imposed on him by his well-meaning but over-anxious aunts, Tim acts alone but in the subsequent title, Tim and Lucy go to Sea, Tim is joined by Lucy who shares the adventures when the boat they are on is taken over by mutineers.
Two of the best girls in picture books are Madeline, the eponymous heroine of Ludwig Bemelman's series of titles. The first, simply called Madeline, introduces her as the smallest of the 12 girls living in a boarding school in "an old house in Paris all covered in vines" and the bravest. Madeline is not afraid of anything and, when she has her appendix out, she is incredibly brave. Although Madeline is seven, the rhyming text and wonderful illustrations make it suitable – and inspirational and influential - for reading to much younger children.
Eloise, the heroine of Kay Thompson's picture books, has a quite different background; she lives on the top floor of the Plaza in New York where she is looked after by an English nanny. She is probably a spoilt brat but she is also feisty, independent and charmingly rule breaking. Lucy, Madeline and Eloise are from a long time ago but the books in which they feature remain core titles in terms of strong girl characters.
More recently (and don't worry too much that they are animals) there's Sheila Rae, the Brave by Kevin Henks and Olivia by Ian Falconer – a mouse and a pig respectively but great girls underneath it. And there's Lauren Child's Lola who first appeared in I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato with her older and very patient brother Charlie. Lola and Charlie are now stars of children's TV as well as many more books. While Lola may not be a perfect role model in terms of behaviour, the imaginative playfulness of the stories and the delightful interactions between the siblings should capture your niece's imagination far more than Disney.
Looking further ahead, your niece will come across Philip Pullman's brave, rash and clever Lyra in His Dark Materials, super-bright Hermione in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and its many sequels and, perhaps the toughest heroine of them all, Katniss Evergreen from The Hunger Games among many others. I'm sure she will learn how to re-evaluate Disney when she needs to. Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 days ago.