Can you recommend a positive fiction books for girls

[RoseGreen]

Does anyone know of any good books for pre-school girls? I'm looking for books where the main character is female and not depicted as a princess or a girl who needs rescuing by a prince or some other stereotype. Most of the books I have found seem to have male leads. Even if it's a story with animals, the animals are depicted as men (Peter Rabbit, Spot the dog). I want to start giving DD some positive role models. So I would be very grateful for any recommendations. Thanks!

My daughter loves these books www.amazon.co.uk/Tara-Binns-Eagle-Eyed-Pilot-1-x/dp?tag=mumsnetforum-21 they are like a female Mr Ben trying out different jobs. I agree with you it's so difficult to find good female characters. In things like Dear Zoo I tend to swap the sexes, but once DD learns to read this will get more difficult! I also like Meg and Mog, although witches almost as much of a cliche as princesses, but at least she's a female lead.

Are you interested in books which actively subvert the princess stereotype? I loved the Worst Princess, where the princess gangs up with the dragon, who sets the prince's pants on fire, then they go gallavanting round the countryside having a great time. Also like Zog, where at the end it turns out the princess doesn't want to be a princess, she wants to be a doctor, and the knight in shining armour doesn't want to be in fights, he also wants to be a doctor (or possibly nurse - can't actually remember), so they set up an air ambulance service with the aid of Zog the dragon.

Then there's the Gruffalo's child - the little gruffalo is a girl.

Was just about to post worst princess mostly high five!
Dogs don't do ballet.
Charlie and Lola.
My naughty little sister (tedious as an adult but little kids love it)
The "Daisy" series about Daisy the Duck
Roald Dahl Revolting Rhymes
Cinderella and other stories by Nick Sharratt (goldilocks has funky dreadlocks )

The Daisy Daisy books by Kes Grey
Princess Smartypants
The Gruffalo's Child
Tiger Who Came to Tea
Little Miss books
Little Red Riding Hood
Charlie and Lola

My daughter enjoys "How to hide a lion from grandma", "The tiger who came to tea" and "Secret tree fort". I'd actually not given too much thought to her liking books with female protagonists: she loves talking about fairies and princesses (I think they're the same in her mind) but the books she's drawn to are imaginative and fun

Lots here. You can sort by age or other things.

www.amightygirl.com/books

Here you go (filtered by preschool + fiction)

www.amightygirl.com/books?age_range_filter=8&cat=8

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch is totally brilliant, its considered a feminist childrens classic
Meg and Mog has great pictures
Miffy too!

It might be too young for her but Martin Waddell's beautiful Farmer Duck avoids pronouns and calls Farmer Duck "the Duck".

Martin Waddell's books are lovely.

Neil Gaiman's Blueberry Girl (written for Tori Amos's daughter) is a beautiful way to introduce positive more-than-princess messages to little girls. This video has Neil himself reading the story and is animated by the book's illustrations. I think the words are wonderful and will never tire of reading it to my DD: m.youtube.com/watch?v=QH4lyJWa_84

Katie Morag stories.

Winnie the Witch and Charlie and Lola were popular here.

I also love the How to Hide a Lion books, specially the first one with its Tiger Who Came to Tea references and the baby sibling that's never actually mentioned but obviously key.

The Apple Tree Farm books are sweet and have a big sister/little brother as central characters, and Mrs Boot the farmer not the farmer's wife.

Will come back when I think of more.

For when she is a little older Chris Riddell's Goth Girl books which are beautifully illustrated and full of literary jokes.

For subverting princess books-
Neil Gaiman's The Sleeper and the Spindle also illustrated by Chris Riddell.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon is a Scandinavian version of Beauty and the Beast where a very resourceful girl rescues the prince after a series of adventures. P.J Lynch's version is stunning or the 1914 version by Kay Nielsen

I also like The Snow Queen. It is Gerda who rescues Kay with a little help from wise women, a robber girl and a princess and the Snow Queen isn't punished. Again the P.J.Lynch version is beautiful.

Ada Twist, Scientist and Rosie Revere, Engineer are loved in this house.

I also randomly change the sex of characters to female. If it's a worm, owl, caterpillar, care, horse etc. its female.

I love Katie Morag so much. She's feisty,her Grannie is awesome,her mum breastfeeds like it's a normal thing...my 2 year old son is a fan too although it's a bit too old for him, but the pictures are lovely and he now wants to live on a Scottish island

My DDs loved Maisy Mouse books (for younger pre-schoolers).

My daughter loved the Tamora Pierce books, give them a try.

Another mention for The Paperbag Princess.

The problem with that question, and DD is 7 so a moot point, is I'd prefer DD never thought of jobs as gendered so I wouldn't want to ask her that question.

I know it's hard to design robust psychology experiments! What about saying, "let's talk about a fire fighter, can you draw a fire fighter? Cool, what's your fire fighter's name?" Etc. Would tell you without influencing the child.

Have you seen Redraw the Balance?

“The man whose mother was a pirate” by Margaret Mahy - possibly more of a role model for girls in later life - I certainly often thought it was the best book ever for mothers reading to their children.

The Emily Brown books by Cressida Cowell were some of my DC’s favourites especially the first one. Emily Brown is fab and has great adventures. Also ‘you can’t eat a princess’ can’t remember the author but although it’s about a princess she saves her dad the king from being eaten by aliens.