Worrying content - Good night stories for rebel girls

Someone bought that book for my daughters years ago , dd ripped that page out

Oh bugger dd owns that book too! It’s recommended as good for strong girls etc etc. that is the complete opposite message you expect if pink=girl

Doesn't the Jigsaw provision fall down on using cartoon characters, oversimplification and non binary nonsense without actually calling it that?
The most telling part of Jigsaw is that it's used in all of Cornwall's schools. I had words when my son was in yr 6 and the transgender lesson explicitly mentioned being born in the wrong body. This was the old lesson about Roberta. I believe there's a new version now.

Or take it as a teaching moment?

To explain that while the child may have a firm belief that the adults were wrong to act that way.

That a very hard part of growing intto independent adults is have to accept reality and work from that foundation so stuff like puberty and periods and growning-up decisions all have to be based on truth/facts?

That if its truth/fact based that the outcome is what it is and shoulda woulda coulda thinking is time eating waste of energy etc?

I took Rebel Girls out of the 100 books list. Poison in the sugar plums.

Should have been the bin.

I really want that book for all the other stories. I’m considering gluing that page together so it can’t be read!

Yes OP- I know that it doesn't make it right; I just knew it rang a bell.
Absolutely shouldn't be in a book about girls and shouldn't be presented as fact

MrsOvertonsWindow · Today 14:53

They no doubt will point out it's not statutory until September. But there's nothing wrong with a school getting ahead of the game in terms of safeguarding children is there (as I recall transactivists lecturing us all when they were trying to gaslight society into accepting their fake Stonewall law)

Well quite, they were all for getting ahead of the game (and the law) when they thought it was going to be tiddlywinks. They've known it's Snap for 9 months, but they are still trying to plink the cards across the table.

They no doubt will point out it's not statutory until September. But there's nothing wrong with a school getting ahead of the game in terms of safeguarding children is there (as I recall transactivists lecturing us all when they were trying to gaslight society into accepting their fake Stonewall law) 🙄

Hope that you get a sensible child centred response from the school.

I think we had a discussion about this book when it came out. It's so enraging to see this crap because presumably the rest of the book is all about girls who defied convention and stereotypes about femininity to follow their own path. And then you have this one regressive story which tells us that being a girl is all about liking pink.

@MrsOvertonsWindow i was just checking to see if you had posted 👍

When buying children’s books I always have a good look through beforehand for any whiff of rainbow claptrap including an over-use of words such as kindness, acceptance, being yourself which are part of the GI lexicon. Children don’t know how NOT to be “themselves”, and usually accept each other very readily.

Well done OP. This gaslighting, inappropriate rubbish will only be out of schools when parents complain. This will also help - it's the guidelines for schools (from Sept 2026) for Relationships, Health & Sex Ed. The sections on teaching of gender identity are very clear. Cut & paste below:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6970e7e67e827090d02d42e0/Relationships_education_relationships_and_sex_education__RSE__and_health_education__for_intro_1_September_2026_.pdf

Interesting extracts re gender identity which will go some way to stopping transactivists exploiting children:

"69. Pupils should also be taught the facts and the law about biological sex and gender reassignment. This should recognise that people have legal rights by virtue of their biological sex which are different from the rights of those of the opposite sex with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. Pupils should also be taught to recognise that people with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, as with the other protected characteristics, have protection from discrimination and should be treated with respect and dignity.
70. In teaching this, schools should be mindful that beyond the facts and the law about biological sex and gender reassignment there is significant debate, and they should be careful not to endorse any particular view or teach it as fact. For example, they should not teach as fact that all people have a gender identity. Schools should avoid language and activities which repeat or enforce gender stereotypes. Schools should be mindful to avoid any suggestion that social transition is a simple solution to feelings of distress or discomfort.
...
72. Where schools decide to use external resources, they should avoid materials that use cartoons or diagrams that oversimplify this topic, that could be interpreted as being aimed at younger children, or that perpetuate stereotypes or encourage pupils to question their gender. Schools should consult parents on the content of external resources on this topic in advance and make all material available to them on request...."

Mine too. We've read a few of the stories from it but not that one! 🤨

Thanks for the heads-up OP. That one's going in the bin.

https://www.broadview.news/p/before-rafferty?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

You may be interested in this. Not about the book but how stories about this child and others sparked changes to the affirmation model of treatment.

Good on you for speaking up. The false impression of consensus on this issue needs to be shattered.

It's a misogynistic, homophobic ideology that preys on the vulnerable and rides roughshod over the boundaries of everyone else. It's the exact opposite of the "love and accept yourself" message children should be taught, and has no place in schools.

Lectured not textured FFS

I got given that book and immediately spotted the story you mentioned.

Most of the other stories have a tone of statutory celebration that turned what are probably fascinating biographies into something conventional, repetitive and dull. It was trying so so hard to be cool. IME kids spot that a mile off, nobody likes to be textured when reading no matter your age.

It went straight to the charity shop.

How glad I am we're done with school

All power to you OP
Isn't 'Coy' an American child? The name is familiar
(Sorry if I'm stating the obvious)

Fucks sake. this is on my daughter's bookshelf right now. Fairly sure she has never read it....

That's appalling. I considered buying that book for my children at one point. Glad I didn't now. How can they not see that these types of stereotypes (girls like pink) are so regressive?