i've been posting on goodreads some of the books that we read, though i'm not always great at keeping that list up to date. it can be found here. i've rated them, but haven't left comments. a few of my favorites from that list are when you were small, where you came from, can't you sleep little bear (and let's go home little bear), frog and toad, are you my mother, olivia, all of the mo willems books, the little fur family, and fletcher and the falling leaves. we've read quite a few more than what's listed there, and i'll get to updating that....someday. in the meantime, i'd like to create a list of standards for good kid lit that goes against the grain:
-gender doesn't have to be ignored, but should not be exaggerated. animal characters are a good way to go. the personification of creatures is entertaining enough to not need the explicitly gendered attributes. gender isn't prioritized. also, the olivia books have a strong and obvious female lead, and she has a picture of eleanor roosevelt above her bed. win. we read a lot of animal-character books. a lot of them.
-strong female characters shouldn't be loners! we read violet the pilot today, and i was disappointed with the number of times the book mentioned how much of an outcast violet was. sure, maybe this might appeal to kids who have felt left out, but it's a picture book....meaning that the demographic is likely not-quite-school-aged kids who, in my humble opinion, do not need to be exposed to the nasty attitudes of school-aged children yet, at least not for pages upon pages about how mean they were to this girl for liking different things and wearing dirty clothes. in the end, she stuck her ground, but the story wasn't as much about a cool girl as much as it was about a girl overcoming peer bullying.
-a lot of kid lit geared towards little girls/the female gender equates to lessons in morality, or a commentary on fashion. you will find a bazillion books on the library shelves about which tutu to wear to what event (barf). we've read enough of these. i want to see girls on an adventure! girls who don't need to be reminded that they are, in fact, girls! girls in science! girls doing something! another book that was recommended to us was grace for president. i didn't love it. i didn't want to read a book to my grace that started off with a "no woman has ever been president!" i didn't want to read to her about the competition between grace and tom, or a book with a message that "being a good person" is what matters in the end. i realize that elections are important. i also know that politics in america are grossly celebrified. blogger tells me that isn't a word, but you know what i mean. she'll learn about elections in school. she'll go with me to vote. i don't want to teach her that she's at a disadvantage. overall: not awful, but i didn't bring it home.
-we read banjo granny tonight. it's about a bluegrass-loving granny and her grandbaby, and it's definitely clear that granny is a she, and baby is a boy (his name is owen), but these characters could easily be swapped for grandpa and granddaughter and the story wouldn't be altered much, if at all.
-i asked grace today what would happen if somebody yawned so big that they swallowed the moon. i asked her if that person's stomach would glow. she said no, but then i traded the moon for some stars and there's no doubt there. for sure, that person's stomach would glow. THAT would be a great story!
here's what i want: stories in which gender doesn't matter and/or isn't overstated. i'll pass on the blatantly moral, especially when it pertains to family structure and values. no female leads obsessed over their dress collection. strong female characters should not be oppressed/teased/set up to overcome many obstacles before they can prove victorious/portrayed in conflict with their environment/parents/authority/peers/whatever. this shouldn't be too hard, right?
slatebreakers.com is a blog that was started by some friends of a friend. they review kid lit and whether or not the books (author, character) break the slate by challenging or questioning the world around them. yes, please. there are more young adult books here than picture books, but you can search the tags.
the amelia bloomer project is also great. the sidebar to her blog has the links to the lists of past years.
bitch magazine also put together a list.
all of this has come together as a result of a question i asked a new friend who is studying queer theory as it applies to motherhood. i wanted to know, as a married woman with two children (one of each sex), how she was working this into her every day. i've been asking myself the same question for a long time - how might i work to challenge what we see as normal when we talk about gender and family structure? grace is at an advantage: she sees her dad and i exist separately, meaning that we each take on the typical responsibilities of both mom and dad. her "normal" is also an extended family, and a diego backpack that travels back and forth twice a week. i'm also not a girly-girl - i don't shave, i don't usually wear very "feminine" things (though i do like shopping and i do like dresses), and clay isn't explicitly masculine (he's much more compassionate and tender than i am).
our house is not a gendered house. there are not designated roles for either sex. when children are raised in a home with both parents, they are apt to notice that mom does something more than dad, and it's no more than a simple observation....but that observation is then generalized to assume that all moms make dinner, and all dads go to work in the morning. we've got a pretty varied mix, here, and that applies at her father's house as well. her generalizations are probably more like "guys have beards" and "moms drink a lot of coffee."
anyway. expect more kid lit reviews as we go, and feel free to share some of your favorite books in the comments.
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