Children’s books

[PinkSocks89]

I post very infrequently but would like some help please. I went though my little girls books (brought by others) and to my horror most were completely male charcters. Even worse those with female characters were in an apron, following the male around etc.
Please can someone advise me on any children’s books with strong female characters. If this isn’t the right place to post please point me in the right direction!

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!)

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Julia Donaldson (while they are lovely to read aloud and my dc love/loved them) drives me mad in the sexism regard. It wouldn't have taken much for one of the animals in the Gruffalo to be a she. (I know the Gruffalo's Child is female, but come on). And there are two books - Stick Man and Tabby McTat - about the male figure having adventures and going on their quest while the female waits at home.

www.cartoonkate.co.uk/dont-call-me-princess-page/

Later on - any of the Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett where the main character is a strong female lead who is cleverer than all the men around her.
Roald Dahl has some wonderful female characters - Matilda, Sophie (BFG), The Witches (baddies but still great)

In picture books: I love you Blue Kangaroo by Emma Chichester Clark, female protagonist and adorable book.
The Unicorn Prince: sounds like a male oriented book but actually the heroine is female - admittedly kind and caring but still good.
It’s not out quite yet (July) but Brenda is a Sheep by Morag Hood is really funny and a female lead.
The Bandit Queen by Natalia O’Hara
Canonball Coralie and the Lion by Grace Easton

Hotel Flamingo by Alex Latimer (5yrs +)

Totally agree with Pippi Longstocking, she’s a great, strong female character.

The Pongwiffy series of books are lovely - about a witch and her friends, very funny. My DDs loved them when they were kids.

Thanks so much for suggestions. For those asking they are all just typical picture books, but most are male characters and I don’t want this imbalance in the books she has access to at home.

Of course I take her book shops and libraries but I also wanted to ask for people’s suggestions and I have found them all really helpful. Thankyou everyone 😊

I’m really surprised by all the responses saying it’s not an issue - I notice this massively with my preschool aged children’s books. The default is for all the main characters to be male.

Be careful of Julia Donaldson - Zog is good as is the snail on the tail of the whale one, and the one with a witch is pretty good but some of the others are very sexist imo (eg avoid the scarecrows wedding)

Don’t kiss the frog is another one to look at OP. The thing I don’t like about this one is that as a pp said about some books it starts of from a position of sexism where princesses are supposed to be pretty etc and then the story tells you about a princess that bucks the trend, but it’s not just a normal story with the sexism removed.

Princess Daisy and the nincompoop knights as a pp mentioned is good imo. Again there is underlying sexism but the story handles it pretty well imo.

Of course it's an issue. Even when the lead is female, often everyone else is male. See Meg and Mog.

We have Ada Twist, Scientist, very good. There are others in a similar vein.

Also the Paper Bag princess, and we have a few of the dream big stories, we have Ada Cole and Emmeline Pankhurst.

Zog was the one that sprang immediately to my mind - although the strong female lead bit passed DD2 by as she just thinks dragons are cool.

I think it does get better as they get older in a way - things like Matilda that was mentioned earlier.

To be honest I just verbally nitpicked the gender norms away when we read them for bedtime stories, moving into discussing how social norms had changed in an age appropriate way as we got older. DD2 in particular is very clear in liking what the hell she wants to like and bugger gender norms - to the point that school had a medieval day - princesses, kings and knights dress up and she rocked up as a dragon.

Jill murphy's books eg 5 minutes peace are in board book form.
The female character is a mum and does perform childcare related tasks.
But I feel like she's given a bit of an identity.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004IPQTSA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21 this is one I loved when I was small.

My DD and her friends currently adore “The Worst Witch”.
“Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf” was one of my favourites.
And who can forget Lyra from “His Dark Materials”?
The Sally Lockhart series and “The Firework Maker’s Daughter” are also Philip Pullman books with strong female leads.

Probably a bit advanced for a 3 month old but worth bearing in mind for when she’s older.