Have you ever noticed that all the animals in the popular children’s lift-the-flap book Dear Zoo are male? Every single one. It’s not an isolated example. Looking at almost 6,000 children’s books published between 1900 and 2000, the study, led by Janice McCabe, a professor of sociology at Florida State University, found that males are central characters […]
I want to be like Anne when I grow up. My occasional Mighty posts are about this kind of dynamic: encountering characters in literature that actually change you for the better. Laura Ingalls is one, and so far I’ve also written about Cassie Logan, Alex Archer, Jean Valjean and the Tillerman children. There are plenty […]
The wonderful Lucy is hosting an International Women’s Day link-up at Lulastic and the Hippyshake, so head over there for a great collection of posts. It’s International Women’s Day, so without further ado, here are 8 ways – some easy, some not – that you, yep, you can make the world a better place for girls […]
Oh to be in England, now that it’s snowing in New Zealand. Oh hold on, we are! We have just arrived in Somerset for a spell with our family here. The last few weeks have included packing the house, moving our stuff into storage, marshalling help from many kind people in doing the above, travelling […]
Thanks to A Mighty Girl’s Facebook feed for this contribution to the saga of retailers insisting on labelling toys for girls or for boys: Update I’ve since spotted this prettier version from Kristen Myers, and done one of my own, since the above one (the earliest I’ve located) is now offline entirely. And […]
It’s been a rough week in our house, for one reason and another. I’ve been unusually tired and low, though still vastly improved from the worst days. The good news is that I rediscovered some of my favourite childhood novels and have spent the week snatching time to read about the Tillerman family. Cynthia Voigt […]
She’s a Mighty Girl and Mighty Commenter and Alex is also one of the patron saints of music for SBJ. She very kindly put together a couple of compilations of songs for his christening in England last year, and they’ve been on high rotate in our house (though SBJ has now learned how to turn […]
I came across two good news stories today, and I thought I would share them, to balance out all the bad news that slurries around. Here are two people to be inspired by. I read today about Mighty Girl Tiana, who saved the lives of three babies in a house-fire last night: A 12-year-old bundled […]
I love a good list, and I’m a sucker for book competitions. So I was excited to see that the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Award finalists have been named. I was not excited to read some of the conclusions of the judging panel (Bernard Beckett, author of the very clever Genesis, Lynn Freeman from […]
Many of my mentors are fictional. Characters in novels whom I not only like but also want to be like. I really like Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, and I’d even enjoy being her for a bit, apart from the lack of modern plumbing, medicine and feminism. But I don’t find myself thinking ‘now, this […]