FEMINIZING CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Graves, Elizabeth Minot
FEMINIZING CHILDREN'S BOOKS ELIZABETH MHVOT GRAVES THIS International Women's Year. how are girls and women faring in books for children? Women's Lib has resulted w a real effort to avoid sexist...
...It is up to the girls...
...3.95...
...You can even stand still-not move it a'tall and go no place at all...
...The doors are open...
...As Ludel's principal says at graduation in this moving first novel by Brenda Wilkinson (Harper...
...colorful working women from Colonial days on...
...takes a wry look at home life when mother goes off to work...
...by James Marshall (Little...
...Lothrop...
...A breakthrough book was the recent My Doctor by Harlow Rockwell (Macmil-lan...
...These novels with their many facets and rounded characters have grown, slowly, from experience...
...Phots...
...Gently humorous and warmly loving is Anna Banana by Rosekrans Hoffman (Knopf...
...In / Love My Mother by Paul Zindel, III...
...is a brilliant, biting tale of a less adaptable family and a father, furious because his daughter is determined to become a lawyer, and his son a dancer...
...Alas, the need still exists...
...11-16...
...9-13...
...Father is happy in his new role...
...5-8...
...by Martha Alexander (Dial...
...6.95...
...There are books telling what jobs women have had and can train for, among them What Can She Be: A Police Officer by G. & E. Goldreich, with fine photos of girls working side by side with men...
...the boss just happens to be female...
...Mandy's Grandmother by Liesel Moak Skorpen, HI...
...6.95...
...Earlier feminist stories were often hurriedly written, contrived, selfconscious, strident and preachy...
...7.95...
...the small boy's mother teaches him football and judo as a matter of course...
...superior profiles of 14 talented, determined sports stars...
...5.95...
...Nobody's Family Is Going to Change by Louise Fitzhugh (Farrar...
...4.95...
...10-15...
...But when they help out, all ends well, and there's a new family closeness...
...by John Melo (Harper...
...Happily, many current children's books do a fine job of presenting appealing liberated females and the "new" life-style...
...of a black girl growing up and dreaming of a life beyond her little town, and of a career as a writer, "It's your own lil red wagon...
...In Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien (Atheneum...
...in which a monkey father, set on having a son, delights in his unexpected daughter...
...in which a small girl dreams of going to sea and gets her wish...
...In 1975's very funny picture book Mary Alice: Operator No...
...6-10...
...in which daredevil Molly saves the village from an ogre, after all the men have failed...
...had her problems too, as she strove for an education, independence and acceptance by her guardian, a complex, tragic, romantic man, his marriage made miserable by his earlier chauvinistic mores...
...a lively biography of vital Belva Lock-wood by Mary Virginia Fox (Harcourt...
...4.95...
...6.95...
...the pioneer women lawyer who actually ran for president in 1884...
...is upset because Mandy prefers ponies to dolls, but the two learn to love and understand one another...
...9-12...
...Elizabeth minot oraves is a freelance writer and children's books editor...
...Women's Lib has resulted w a real effort to avoid sexist stereotypes...
...What does her "bold, free life" consist of...
...5.95...
...8-12...
...and Women Who Win by Francene Sabin (Random...
...in which the doctor just happened to be a woman...
...7.95...
...5.95...
...9 by Jeffrey Blake, III...
...4.95...
...Take this year's The Maggie B. by Irene Haas (Athen-eum...
...4.76...
...The Terrible Thing That Happened At Our House by Marge Blane, with hilarious illustrations by John Walker (Parents...
...10-14...
...shows that male-female roles are patterned by culture and that a free choice lies ahead...
...Humor can often be a better tool for change than sermonizing...
...7.95...
...Back in Abolitionist days, teenage Bernardette of The Forge and the Forest, an outstanding novel by Betty Underwood (Houghton...
...Hidden Heroines in American History by Elaine Radau (Messner...
...Responsibilities for the kids, the need for mother to have an identity of her own, and the possibility of various lifestyles for boys too, is subtheme of The Meat in the Sandwich by Alice Bach (Harper...
...Continual cooking, dishwashing, sweeping, and minding baby brother...
...Before long, there may be no need for special books to build female pride and confidence...
...a brisk, witty, home-school story of hockey-crazy Mike...
...9-12...
...6.50...
...A science book, He and She by S. Carl Hirsch (Lippin-cott...
...6.64...
...Only when equality is taken for granted will women be truly equal...
...Photos...
...5.95...
...They are moving and memorable...
...You can roll it, pull it, or drag it...
...Rollicking in wit and adventure is Molly Mullett by Patricia Coombs (Lothrop...
...10-15...
...The girl finds her answer in a sad-wise way...
...it's the kids that balk...
...4.95...
...it is a girl, not a boy, who faces the world alone after a nuclear holocaust and has the courage and ingenuity necessary to survive...
Vol. 102 • November 1975 • No. 18
