To think all female children’s authors should write books with girls in

[Bigmango]

I find it so depressing how many children’s books feature only boys or at least boys in the main role. I recently read a book about pirates to my daughter where every one of the four main characters was a boy (for absolutely no reason - it would have made no difference to the storyline if one or more were girls). I was then shocked to realise the author was a woman. As a female children’s author, wouldn’t you see it as your job to try and redress the balance a bit?

I’ve actually just read a book with pirates in it where all the characters bar one are female

It’s called Seafire

I only read books where the main characters are female

Limits my books yes but it’s what I like. I read the blurb in the back and if it says “Bob is...” I immediately put back where as if it says “Ann is...” I will read the rest of the blurb and then first few pages to see if it’s interesting.

Most of my authors are female too.

I think the only books I have that have a male lead is Ransom Biggs,
Miss Peregrines House for Perculior children

@Soubriquet what do you do if it says Alex is... Sam is.... or Chris is...?

I write for children and always have at least one female lead character. In my experience boys are perfectly happy to buy books with female protagonists, as long as you can show them that the book is entertaining/exciting/funny. Personally I find it easier to create female characters as I was once an 11 year old girl!

It a huge bug bear of mine that JK Rowling didn't make Harry a girl.

Huge bugbear of mine is she wrote the bloody books at all...

ah yeah - we watched this during literacy training. And it’s true of our school library (and I suspect most)

Without being dismissive - because I think it has been a big problem in the past - I really think you are talking about an issue that is currently already being addressed. As I said earlier - and as a PP who is an illustrator of children’s books has said - publishing is really switched on to this now.

That video uses old data to make its point ... and, crucially, it is a marketing video. It is making its case very effectively but it is selling an idea to get you to buy a book. It’s not academic research. One of their points of reference is a Time list of Top 100 Children’s Books - that’s an issue of bias on the compilers of the list, I’d argue. The contributors to that list probably were white male journalists and it’s an opinion piece. Can’t tell because they don’t cite the date of the data they’re using.

I think it’s great that educators, librarians and the wider world recognise it’s been a problem and look to redress the balance in what they buy in to libraries now.

But I also think it’s crucial not to devalue all the female characters in children’s literature who are fully realised rounded people of all types of girl, and always have been. Personally I loved Enid Blyton growing up, and I particularly loved the ‘tomboy’ characters. If you read them now they’re horribly dated but it’s unfair to say I loved them just because that’s all there was for girls. It’s not true. Judy Blume - fantastic rounded female characters. Noel Streatfield - ambitious hardworking girls. Anne of Green Gables, the Secret Garden, Carrie’s War, Nancy Drew...

There’s even more choice now, which is brilliant.

Children’s books should offer both mirrors and windows. Mirrors to see yourself reflected on the page - ethnicity, culture, appearance, personality. Windows to allow you to experience something different, to look into other worlds, other perspectives.

You can’t proscribe that creatively. But as the end consumer (as a buyer of children’s books for your DD and for your school library) you can use your purchasing power to send a message ( which is why Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls did so well ... helped by effective marketing )

So, on one hand you are saying that current writers should write more books where the main character is a girl, but when people point out that there are loads, you say you that the school can't afford to buy new books....

Not quite sure how you think your particular problem is going to be addressed by your solution.

I have boys (grown up now) and I never found any issue with them reading books with a female lead or strong character, they particularly loved the skulduggery pleasant books. there is a thread running at the moment where a parent of B/G twins was struggling to find books featuring boys.

And honestly, if I was a writer i'd be writing what i wanted and what was selling.

I agree with you. Even Harry Potter. Why Harry Potter?

@NoSquirrels did you read the guardian article? There is still an issue, particularly in picture books (which is the stage we are at at the moment).

I never actually said female authors should only write female characters, just that they should make sure they’ve included at least one. I don’t understand how, as a woman, you would not want to encourage more visual representation of women in a variety of different roles if at all possible.

And the argument that there were good books written for girls historically is interesting. I read voraciously as a child and literally read everything that has been mentioned at least 2 or 3 times because there was just not enough else out there (I loved reading books about girls). I think I read Deenie 5 times! It was only as I turned about 13 or 14 that more books started appearing. And many of these books also put girls into traditional roles - for example Ballet Shoes. I loved these books but none of them made away attempt to change the roles that women had been allotted for time immemorial. In fact one of the only authors who really stuck out for me for writing girls out of their traditional roles or places in society was in fact Philip Pullman.

@WaxOnFeckOff I’ve gone off on a few different tangents since starting this thread. But I’m not sure what is wrong with asking female authors to include female characters? Don’t have to all be female, don’t even have to be the protagonist. But just make one of your bloody pirates a girl because why the feck not?

Also interesting the amount of people who have sons who haven’t noticed a problem

I work in the book industry. Your school library needs an update. In 9-12 reading, I would say the trend is for female protagonists. In 5-8yrs it is 50:50. Picture books are mixed, a lot of characters are animals etc so less gender oriented anyway. In teens, there is far more literature aimed at girls than boys.

I think your knowledge is out of date but I do appreciate school libraries are full of old books and have no budgets!

And many of these books also put girls into traditional roles - for example Ballet Shoes. I loved these books but none of them made away attempt to change the roles that women had been allotted for time immemorial.

While I don’t disagree with you overall, I don’t think Ballet Shoes is a good example of this. Petrova becomes a pilot! There weren’t too many women doing that in the 1920s/30s. And even a career on the stage and in Hollywood would have been a bold and slightly racy choice for a naice middle class girl. The girls’ struggle for financial independence after being abandoned by their (almost unseen) male protector is central, and the ‘cast’ is almost entirely female. I think it’s a really empowering book for girls.

It a huge bug bear of mine that JK Rowling didn't make Harry a girl.

And it will really twist your beans to know that it was a deliberate decision by her to do so apparently. She knew that girls were more likely to read a book on witches and wizards regardless of the protagonist's gender but boys were far more likely to read a book with a male lead character. Plenty of strong girls and women in the Potter books though.

@Whattheother2catsprefer

I look for the word she if it’s a unisex name

Interesting discussion. I just wanted to add a recommendation which my 10 almost 11yo ds read recently and couldn't put down: The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler (not sure if name spelling is correct). Spoiler alert. It's a sensitively written and entertaining read about a misbehaving schoolboy and his troubles, except on the very last page you realise Tyke is a girl. So interesting that somehow up until that point the author has managed to mention gender one way or another!

Also interesting the amount of people who have sons who haven’t noticed a problem hmm

Also interesting that many people have given you lots of examples that you choose to ignore.

're the pirates, I guess it depends on the book, pirates are almost exclusively male, both in history and now and I don't think it's an area of employment that you'd be encouraging women to desire. If it's a book aimed at very young kids then it doesn't really matter but i d argue that books about pirates for that age maybe shouldn't be written at all.

It a huge bug bear of mine that JK Rowling didn't make Harry a girl

She wrote the book to make money. I dont think anyone can blame her for making decisions that would make money.

Maybe as parents we need to look at why boys wouldnt read it, if it was a girl.

Pomegranateseeds looking forward to reading! Thanks!!

But I’m not sure what is wrong with asking female authors to include female characters? Don’t have to all be female, don’t even have to be the protagonist. But just make one of your bloody pirates a girl because why the feck not?

Drawing attention to the problem is fine. Though there seems to be less of a problem than you think, as people who work in this industry have said.

But telling all women, that write, they should write girls isnt helpful to women at all.

My son is 8. My daughter is 15. Ds goes to the same primary that dd went to. The school purposely ensure there are lots of mixed genders in books. They have plenty of books.

I unsure wether your problem is your school budget or in people writing the books.

@NoSquirrels did you read the guardian article? There is still an issue, particularly in picture books (which is the stage we are at at the moment).

I did read it (again. I read it when it came out too.) If you analyse the article the books in the charts include perennial bestsellers and picture books are in fact most at risk of the same old same old being bought because when people have babies they default to the classics of their youth. The article notes that huge strides are being made but that hasn’t fed through to the statistics yet.

I never actually said female authors should only write female characters, just that they should make sure they’ve included at least one. I don’t understand how, as a woman, you would not want to encourage more visual representation of women in a variety of different roles if at all possible.

I never said you did- and this is at least twice in this thread you’ve told me I have said female writers should write female characters. I’ve just said you cannot compel creativity. And that most female writers today do include female characters. And that publishers specifically look out for gender balance nowadays.

I do, as a woman, want to encourage diversity of roles and experience. And I believe it is happening.

I don’t know what the pirate book is - did you check the copyright line to see when it was published? Regardless, it appears to me that you are generalising from that one book about a problem that is not currently a problem, although historically it has been.

And I do absolutely disagree about Ballet Shoes! For all the reasons AppropriateAdult said. They’re basically a gang of girl entrepreneurs.

Leave the author to write what they want I'd say, it's what they do. Readers do not have a right to tell them what should be in their books.

And it will really twist your beans to know that it was a deliberate decision by her to do so apparently. She knew that girls were more likely to read a book on witches and wizards regardless of the protagonist's gender but boys were far more likely to read a book with a male lead character. Plenty of strong girls and women in the Potter books though.

This isn't true. JK Rowling wrote Harry as a boy because that's the vision which came into her head.

The 'boys will only read boys but girls will read boys too' came much later from her publisher, who suggested her name was on the book as JK Rowling and not Joanne Rowling, so as to not alienate male readers. It has nothing to do with how Rowling originally wrote the Harry character.