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Two Books For Every Girl's Parents At About-Face, we hear mostly from parents and teachers. They have first hand knowledge with girls and young women and are desperately looking for ways to empower their daughters. They write and say "Thank You for what you are doing!" and ask what they can do to insure that their daughters grow up strong and confident and brave. After being thoroughly depressed by the problems facing young girls when I read Reviving Ophelia and Schoolgirls (both terrific books) I was delighted to discover two other books that are very solution oriented. You can order both books through our link to amazon.com.
Growing A Girl
The book is terrific and has hundreds of suggestions of ways to help strengthen your daughter's sense of herself and encourage her precious individuality. Barbara Mackoff suggests that we begin by looking at our own assumptions of girls and boys, and helps illustrate the many ways we treat them differently. Even those of us who are dedicated to treating children without gender stereotypes may be surprised at our own biases. Recently moving into a new house, my boyfriend Frank asked if he should keep the box of rockets he made as a little boy. I said sure, that maybe a future son would be interested in them. I did what most of us do in assuming that only boys will be interested in science related toys and games. But I didn't even realize that I do this too until I began reading Growing A Girl. Who's to say that our future daughter won't be fascinated by dad's rocket collection?! Another thing I learned, is to stop being so utterly paranoid about the toys I buy for children. Mackoff suggests that the key is to watch what the individual child likes to do and encourage it. Provide varied "boy" and "girl" toys and then let your child direct her own play. Unfortunately this may mean Barbie too! I try to shy away from buying girls typical girls toys, but then I remember how much I loved dolls growing up--and still do. Provided with a variety of toys, your daughter or son will have the freedom to pursue all her interests. Growing A Girl also has a terrific chapter called Tell The Truth About Beauty to help you help your daughter dissect what is real from what is illusion in the images we see. And to encourage her to see her unique beauty in the face of it all.
Great Books For Girls
Kathleen Odean is a librarian who created the most invaluable resource for parents. Great books For Girls is a guide to hundreds of books with positive female characters. At the beginning of the book she discusses the criteria she used: "I looked for girls and women who faced the world without timidity. I found female characters who are creative, capable, articulate and intelligent. They solve problems, face challenges, resolve conflicts, go on journeys. These girls are not waiting to be rescued." The guide is broken into sections for every type of book, from Easy Readers to Poetry and Magazines. Books are grouped by difficulty, beginning with picture books and ending with books for young adults. It also includes several resources for parents and an appendix of great Out-of-Print books. I ran out and bought a copy for every friend I have with a young daughter. This book will provide terrific literary examples for your daughter all through her developing years AND the legwork was done for you! Each book entry includes the title, the author, the illustrator, the publishing information, an age range and a description. Odean sought to find female characters who exhibit traits not often associated with girls like athleticism, independence and bravery and left out some otherwise fine books because the characters and plots had more traditional female characters helping or care-taking. The point of Great Books For Girls is not to take away from books that illustrate positive "female" characteristics like nurturing, but rather to broaden the repertoire to include many other traits your daughter will need in real life. Oh, the places she will go! Note that if you happen to order the book through our link to amazon.com bookstore, About-Face receives a small percentage of the price from them. Since we have no funding outside of occasional donations, this is a great way to support us while you get some terrific books! Thanks.
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