'Herstory' for 5 year olds - does this book exist?

[sethstarkaddersmum]

I decided to tell dd a bedtime story about the Suffragettes the other night and it really caught her imagination. She lay there for ages shouting 'Votes for women!' instead of going to sleep.

It got me thinking - I would like a book I can pick up at night for a bedtime story the way I do with my books of fairy tales and folk tales, but with female role models for dd so that she does not end up like the girl being discussed on another thread right now who chose Cheryl Cole as one of the most important women of our time.
When I was young I loved the R.J.Unstead 'People in history' books so what I really want is a feminist version of those.

Does anyone know of anything like this? I can think of so many great stories.

[SweetDreamerGirl]

You could take a look at some "feminist fairy stories" here

[sethstarkaddersmum]

Cool!
Those look great - dd will love them.

[HoopyFroodDude]

this one is good

[SweetDreamerGirl]

Enjoy!

[tabouleh]

Oh - there is the herstoria magazine!

I am thinking of getting a subscription for my birthday. There is a trial on-line edition and some articles and best of all for free there is a women's history website which you could use.

I remember reading at junior school the story of Grace Darling who helped her father save 13 men from a wrecked ship.

That is such a lovely thing that you are going to do for your DD .

[SweetDreamerGirl]

"She lay there for ages shouting 'Votes for women!'"

Yay!

[sethstarkaddersmum]

Hoopyfrood - looks great, I love Sandi Toksvig - have ordered it on one-click! OMG @ this review though :'I am usually a fan of Sandi Toksvig and find her very amusing but this book is simply aimed at filling the heads of young girls with feminist nonsense. Simply trawling through history to find token females that managed to achieve anything does not further the cause in any way, it simply underlines the fact that 99% of all scientific discovery, exploration, invention and indeed general greatness were achieved by the male of the species. This book may be portrayed as humerous and light hearted but giving young girls ideas beyond their station in life is certainly not funny. Buy them books about marrying well, motherhood and household management as this will serve them much better in the long run. '

and lmao @ 'Tellingly, there is no mention of Margaret Thatcher in this book'.

[SweetDreamerGirl]

Crikey - what a review!

"99% of all scientific discovery, exploration, invention and indeed general greatness were achieved by the male of the species."

So women being legally barred from education and jobs has nothing to do with it then? GROWL!!!!

[SweetDreamerGirl]

That anti-feminist "review" is actually high praise indeed. It sounds like the book is absolutely perfect for your DD. For a minute there, I thought the Patriarchy had done soft on us women.

[sethstarkaddersmum]

pmsl @ 'indeed general greatness'.

Although the Sandi Toksvig book looks fab I wonder if it is really for older girls - the reviews say teenagers or 7-11.

[cockles]

I saw these en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Story_%28Scholastic_UK%29#My_Story:_Girls
in a bookshop recently - 'my story' for girls, all set in different historical periods -didn't look at but could be fun.
For older ones there is a great suffrage story called Miss Rivers and Miss Bridges by Geraldine Symons, where two girls dress up as suffragettes and take part in the campaigns.

[SweetDreamerGirl]

In that case, the book will something to look forward to.

[sethstarkaddersmum]

and it sounds like there will be lots of bits in it I can tell her about.

[ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave]

I am feeling a bit about the title, though. I don't want to teach DD that "Girls are Best", any more than I want to teach DS that "Boys are Best" -- I don't think that's what feminism is about. What does it say to DS if I buy DD a book with that title? If it were "Girls are Great!" or "Girls are Cool!" or something like that it would be in my shopping basket.

[ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave]

I like the sound of Cool Women, for example.

[SweetDreamerGirl]

Yes. Perhaps the recommended age 7 and above is just a reading age thing. If you tell her instead, I'm sure you can put the content in suitable words that she understands.

Please report back and let us know what your daughter thinks of the stories.

[ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave]

And oooh, there's an entire series for children on different places and periods in history called The Other Half of History...

[ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave]

Also like the sound of Girls Who Rocked the World (and Volume 2).

[SweetDreamerGirl]

ProfessorLayton, yes, I agree a title better than "Girls are Best" would have been more appropriate.

On the other hand, the anti-feminist reviewer didn't see much wrong with the title.

[ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave]

I think (s)he must be taking the piss. There's no way you could genuinely hold views like that and be "usually a fan of Sandi Toksvig", surely?

[tortoiseonthehalfshell]

I suspect it's taking the piss, but sometimes i'm just being optimistic when i think things like that. But "ideas above her station" and "books about homemaking" is fairly tongue in cheek.

[ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave]

I probably wouldn't be so bothered about the title if I only had girls, to be fair. But I have a responsibility to instil a realistic view of feminism in all my children, whatever their sex and gender, and giving small boys the idea that "feminism is about saying that girls are better than boys" is massively counter-productive, IMO.

[SweetDreamerGirl]

Yes, Sandi Toksvig seems to be at the feminist end of the spectrum.

[ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave]

In fact, now I'm getting very mildly uptight about the subtitle of Cool Women ("the thinking girl's guide to the hippest women in history"). Why should only girls read about women's achievements? Great that you're publishing a book that's attempting to go some way to redress the huge bias in this area; less great that you've decided to implicitly (or semi-explicitly, in fact) exclude half the population from reading it.

Only mildly, though, and probably only because I'm on a bit of a roll here...

[SweetDreamerGirl]

Many boys do read about women's achievements. Most boys not as much as they should, but it does happen.

"probably only because I'm on a bit of a roll here..." -- I've got that T-shirt too.