The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler

[Wherearemyminions]

Thinking about children's books, prompted by Usbourne thread and remembered reading this in last year of primary school.

From what I remember (and happy to be corrected if I have rose tinted specs on, it was a very long time ago!) It challenged gender stereotyping in a clever well written and engaging way, not at all clumsy or preachy and ultimately celebrated what we might nowadays call a GNC child?

Not sure how it would be spun nowadays, poor Tyke would probably be whisked off to the clinic !

[Ameanstreakamilewide]

I loved that book, as a kid.

No one sees the excellent plot twist coming, do they??

[Mockers2020Vision]

Minnie the Minx. Beryl the Peril. Pansie Potter (the strongman's daughter, say it in a Dundonian accent and it rhymes.)

They'd all be packed off to Tavistock.

[EverardDigby]

See also Five Go To Buy George A Binder

[Imnobody4]

Gene Kemp said quite explicitly that Tyke was based on the intrepid little northern working class girls she taught.
It's one of my favourite books. I've tried it with lots of classes when it came out and the flabbergasted indignation some of the boys was amusing.

[Michelleoftheresistance]

I loved Tyke Tiler Girls who challenged feminine stereotypes abounded in fiction when I was a kid. Jo from Little Women, Bill in Malory Towers, George in the Famous Five, Tom from the Chalet School, even Joey Bettany. All females who wanted freedom from stereotypes and a wider meaning of what it meant to be female, at a time when women were escaping the home and the idea of a future for a female that held independence and a career and didn't automatically involve being someone's wife and mother.

Why would anyone want to return those girls to fitting their bodies to set stereotypes that should never be stretched or escaped from?

[moonsmarshmellow]

Oh I completely forgot about this! We were read it in primary school and I remember the collective shock at the twist

[HorseWithNoTimeForThis]

.. Five Go To Buy George A Binder

Fucking A+

[KatvonHostileExtremist]

I remember that. Brilliant stuff.

[deydododatdodontdeydo]

I remember reading it at school, but don't remember a twist

[HorseWithNoTimeForThis]

It turned out that george was just after a nice cover for holding magazines or loose sheets of paper together.

[popehilarious]

I always saw this on the bookshelf at school but never read it. How did it read so as the twist (which I've just looked up) wasn't given away - didn't the prose get really awkward?

I think in my head I confused it with Tim Tyler, the Boy Who Lost His Laugh from off TV.

[OccasionalNachos]

I remember this! The class focused on use of gendered language. I remember the dawning realisation & liking it because I was a tomboy.

@popehilarious I don’t remember it being awkwardly written but it was 25 years ago for me, would love to read again as an adult.

[RiddleyW]

How did it read so as the twist (which I've just looked up) wasn't given away - didn't the prose get really awkward?

It must be 35 years since I read it but I think it was written in the first person. So no need for pronouns (just “I”) - the writer just needed to avoid anyone calling her a girl, which she does until right at the end.

[HorseWithNoTimeForThis]

Spoiler City Arizona.

[GlomOfNit]

I read it many, many times as a child and I still remember the jaw-dropping, gut punch of amazement with the denouement! Fantastic book and a great children's writer.

I read it to DS1 (then about 9) and I can tell you, it was VERY hard to keep the 'secret' when reading it out loud. Plus, we tend to discuss books as we read them together and it was really hard to keep saying 'Tyke does this' and 'why do you think Tyke said that?' rather than 'she'. So in many ways I did sort of treat Tyke as a gender neutral character until the very end. Which is sort of ironic, given the book's main intention is to challenge sexist gender stereotypes and confound expectations.

[GlomOfNit]

Definitely not written in a contorted way, but as Riddley says, it's a first person narrative so our narrator controls how we see her. There are a couple of mentions of her name 'the one I hate' (which turns out to be Theodora) which makes her angry. The lovely thing about the book is, that even after you've read it once, it's worth enjoying again (it'll never be the same, of course) and as a child it helped me understand about sexist expectations of behaviour. That sounds really pompous but it did. If anyone said anything derisive about 'tomboys' I'd just mentally reference that with 'what, like Tyke Tyler, you mean? She was brilliant!'.

[JanuaryIsNotTheOnlyMonth]

How did it read so as the twist (which I've just looked up) wasn't given away - didn't the prose get really awkward?

No, as others have said, it's first person. My mother used to read this to year after year of primary schoolchildren, and she said that after a while, you notice all the ordinary sexism towards Tyke as a girl anyway - expecting her to wash up while her brother (Spud?) slinks off without helping, for instance.

[deydododatdodontdeydo]

Oh, my poor memory. I remembered correctly the sex of the protagonist, but don't remember it being ambiguous at all, or there being a twist!

[Endofthedays]

I remember reading it and not thinking about what sex she was. I just identified with her as a child.

I think it is more relevant now because young people aren’t being allowed to see people’s personality as just being them and are expected to see some gender manifestation.

[FaintlyMacabre]

Aargh! I was a voracious reader as a child and I remember this book from the library but never fancied reading it because I thought it was about a naughty boy- not my usual thing (except William and Jennings). 30 years later I find out she was a girl! I missed out.

[YesILikeItToo]

I read it to DX when she was 7 or 8. She was not astonished even a little bit. Progress?

[YesILikeItToo]

Sorry, DD, not DX!

[HandsOffMyRights]

I loved this book as a child!

[Qcng]

Lol DX is so gender neutral!
MN should start using this!

Yes I remember Tyke Tyler, it was a long time ago I've forgotten all about it.

I almost despair how things have gone, adults literally telling their children they're born in the wrong body for liking xyz.

[HearMeSnore]

I've recently bought this for DD. We haven't started it it yet but she picked it up and read the blurb on the back, inspected the picture on the front and promptly enquired "Is Tyke a boy or a girl?"

I pretended not to hear and changed the subject. But I can't help thinking she's not going to get the same astonished delight out of it that I did.