Children’s books

You may be too young for this to be a nostalgia trip for you, but there is a book of stories from the Bagpuss films and they often turn traditional narratives on their head.

The Meg and Mog books have a female lead, as do the Katie Morag stories.

As she gets a bit older, Mrs Pepperpot. She lives a very traditional domestic life but she is absolutely at the centre of the action and masses cleverer and more assertive than her rather dopey, timid husband who is all about what the neighbours will think of him.

Second Clever Polly and the stupid wolf.

Later on - the Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler, Harriet the Spy, Swallows and Amazons.

For when she is a bit older in terms of picture books, Diana and her Rhinoceros (Edward Ardizzone). Diana is the only person who is unfazed when a rhinoceros arrives at the house. The illustrations are also beautiful.

And from when she is about 4, the Sophie books by Dick King Smith for being read to. Sophie wants to be a ‘lady farmer’ and is very independent. The books go up until she is 8 and get a bit harder in terms of reading ability. Sophie is quite GC - there is one bit where she talks about animals having babies and firmly tells her Shetland pony (who at this stage is only a picture) that he can’t have babies.

This is kind of strange- where are these books from? Very few of our picture books feature sexist stereotypes and certainly none of the baby books. The only one I can think of that I don't like is "That's Not My Baby", in which all the babies are boys for some ridiculous reason. I just change the pronouns. Eric Hill, Eric Carle, Mem Fox, Janet and Allan Ahlberg, Sandra Boynton, Jane Foster, Margaret Wise Brown, Helen Oxenbury all do wonderful books for babies.

Sunkisses we haven’t come across that one yet. Why is he in the book?? Makes me cross too.

Don't get 'Goodnight Stories For Rebel Girls'. They include a boy who says he is a girl because he wants to wear pink sparkly dresses (which is what all girls do obviously... ). And he is a real hero (on a par with Anne Frank and Emmeline Pankhurst) as he goes to court to force the school to let him into the girls toilets and changing rooms
It made me so cross that the virtue signalling authors would include a male in a book about female empowerment

A mighty girl has heaps of suggestions:

www.amightygirl.com/books?age_range_filter=7

Also, this may feel counterintuitive, but a lot of classics are actually better than modern books on this issue imo. Something like Blueberries for Sal for example, is a really excellent book, but also the child character 'Sal' is an adventurous and neutrally dressed/represented girl (I actually just had to check if sal was a girl because, despite reading it dozens of times, I've never actually known nor bothered to find out!)

Where are you getting her books from? The only books like that I know of are Richard Scarry books from the 70s where the female animals follow the male animals around dressed in aprons and housewifey clothes. I bought one for my DS and never bought them again because they were so out of date.

There are loads of great feminist books for girls these days. All the recommendations on here are great.

If she's only 3 months, wouldn't your best bet be to go into bookshops/op shops and check them out before purchasing? Youtube also has lots of children's books being read so you can get an idea.

The Baby Catalogue by Janet and Allan Alhberg is a fantastic book with lots of babies and their familes including a family with a stay at home Dad.
I am curious to what books you have been given. Yes there are some that some books out there that seem dated at first glance - the Shirley Hughes book Dogger has the Mum being a housewife and the Dad being out at work but that was generally the norm in the 70s when the book came out. But that actually has nothing to do with the storyline and most children won't really 'notice' that part of it.
I wouldn't worry yet. At 3 months she will be interested in the That's Not My books, books of My First Animals/Vehicles/Colours etc and if they make noises and are chewable even better.

Ruby Roo books.
Hortense and her shadow.
We're going on s bear hunt - about the whole family rather than female lead but great even from a young age.

Will try and think of some others.

Sarah Garland's picture books are great. We especially loved Pass It Polly. Polly and her friend Nisha are taught to play football by Nisha's granddad. They join the school team and go on to glory!

As PP said Julia Donaldson's are good. Charlie and Lola is also a huge hit with my children.

Julia Donaldson books are great, I've been reading them to DS from a few weeks old and he still loves them at 7.

Zog and The Gruffalo's Child spring to mind for their female characters. There are also a few that are aimed at girls, I don't like them so much when they deliberately make the book pink and sparkly.

I'd rather a book looks gender neutral and the story simply has a strong character that happens to be female or male. My DS has never had a problem with reading books with female leads, but won't read a pink, girly looking book.

Also we do love the Night Pirates and Clever Polly. I’m going to trawl our shelves for inspiration tomorrow.

I got The Worst Princess, and she is great but it still includes a whole lot of implicit sexism. For example, the King & Queen want a baby boy, and then when they have a girl, they say 'Nevermind, she can marry a prince' Or something like that.

I can’t remember that bit, which isn’t to say it’s not in there but I do read it a lot right now and it doesn’t ring a bell. But my daughter’s view, who is 8 so very able to articulate her response, is that Princess Sue sticks two fingers up at all expected limitations to great effect. The story is how she overturns the stereotype so you have to include that in the beginning?

From memory the Martin Waddell books didn't use pronouns at all. The prose is very simple so repeating the names didn't sound odd.

As for whether things have changed, there is certainly a huge sex imbalance in children's books:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/21/childrens-books-sexism-monster-in-your-kids-book-is-male?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

I got The Worst Princess, and she is great but it still includes a whole lot of implicit sexism. For example, the King & Queen want a baby boy, and then when they have a girl, they say 'Nevermind, she can marry a prince' Or something like that.

I worry that those implicit bits of sexism can have just as much impact as the explicit message that girls can fight dragons. So do look beyond the headlines of the book if you really want to be careful.

Princess Daisy & the Nincompoop Knights is pretty good.

Before they can read, I just swap he for she if it's an animal, or if the sex of the animal isn't specified.

Ideally what you want is books where there are just lots of female characters, not all these ones that make a big fuss about having female characters.

The Worst Princess is great. My daughter loves how kick ass she is.

I don't know where you are based OP but unless things have changed terribly in the 29 years since I had a baby it's not what I remember. Many picture books featured animals. Martin Waddell's Farmer Duck and Big Bear and Little Bear for example are beautiful but the sex of the animals isn't specified other than in Owl Mother.

I really like "There's a dragon in your book" it's by Tom someone from McFly

Tom Fletcher, who seems to be a prolific children's author with girl heroines.

A little bit older and I don’t know if they are still made, but the Marmalade books are very funny.