In other words, at some level I understood that certain features like eyelashes are generally supposed to mean “female” (thus, Snuffy was apparently “supposed to be” a girl)… but not enough to override my understanding of the actual world (wherein they didn’t necessarily make a deer female; I figured they were “supposed to mean” youth).

Then again, I was always sensitive to the difference between “this is” and “this is supposed to be.” Like, I always very much understood that a heart shape looks nothing like a heart; grape flavor tastes nothing like grapes; stars don’t really have points; etc. (Yet it took me a long time to understand that a halo was not really a golden dinner plate behind someone’s head! I knew it was symbolic— a “holiness signifier”— and not really there, but I didn’t get that it was indicating a glow of light and not a solid object. Kids!)

For example, on the one hand, I always thought Snuffalupagus was a girl, what with the orange eyelids (eyeshadow?) and long eyelashes. Only later did I realize he’s meant to be a boy. (Oddly, I absolutely hated Snuffalupagus. You’d think I would have gravitated to a female character, but she (he!) was the literally the only thing I didn’t like about Sesame Street. There was something scary about him. Which was a drag, because Big Bird was/is my hands-down favorite character— possibly ever; I love him to this day, to an unreasonable degree— and they hung out together.)

On the other hand, there’s Bambi, who to me was unquestionably a girl. I’m not sure why I thought that. Projection, maybe? (I eventually looked it up; apparently he’s a boy and always was, but I can’t seem to get that through my head. I just don’t remember it being noted either way.) In this case it wasn’t really about how he looked; in my mind his noticeable eyelashes were an indicator of youth— Bambi was a child (like me), and I felt that was very important to the story. And I guess I extended the projection to gender as well.

but what about OLIVIA?! she is quite adventurous, from what i remember.

Also, above someone mentioned being unfamiliar with The Paperbag Princess: Basically, the princess’s castle is burned down and her princely boyfriend kidnapped by a dragon. She sets out to rescue him and ends up realising all she needs is herself to be happy. (I love this story)

I was passing by and couldn’t resist, because I feel strongly about grrrls in books too.

On the way to the castle, the servant tells the princess about how when she marries the prince she will have to give up her pet rooster, and wear painful shoes, and clothes so elaborate she will hardly be able to move etc., and so the princess decides to run away. She no longer cares about her appearance, and starts to wear men’s clothing, and travels around by herself on horseback, with her pet rooster, of course, and is feared by men because she isn’t ‘normal.’ But she no longer cares, because she has her freedom, which she realises is worth more than any prince could offer her.

There’s also a lot of disturbing side-stories about what princes have done to their princesses in her world…like one prince who imprisoned his princess in a diamond case because he didn’t want to to change or grow old, he just wanted to put her in there so that he could look at her whenever he wanted to.

The story is in a book by Isobelle Carmody called Green Monkey Dreams.

One series of books that has come out recently that I really love is The Legend of Little Fur by (Australian) author Isobelle Carmody. These are for slightly older kids, I think 9-12 years is the recommended age, though, sadly, so many kids have poor reading skills these days, I think these particular books would be beyond a lot of kids of this age group.

There’s 3 books in the series so far, Little Fur, A Fox Called Sorrow and A Mystery of Wolves. Little Fur, the protagonist of the series, is female, and all of her friends are animals. There’s more male animals than female, but the female animals are portrayed as strong, active, independent and intelligent, and in the illustrations they’re not portrayed as feminised, they look the same as the male animal characters.

There’s other female characters too, like a female wizard and a female water spirit, who are portrayed as having power, and aren’t demonised for it.

So far, all of the bad guys in the books have been male, some of them trolls, some of them human men. I don’t know if Carmody did it intentionally, but it’s something about the books that I like. It’s good to see Little Fur and her animals friends fighting against men and winning.

It’s especially good because in real life, men tend to be the ones who cause the harms that Little Fur and her friends are fighting against – the destruction of the environment, and the growing callousness and sickness of (male) society.

I like The Paperbag Princess. I haven’t read any of the others. I know Maisy and I agree that her books are fairly gender neutral. I will have to look up the books you’ve recommended.

When the Sky is Like Lace sounds wonderful.

I love Pippi Longstocking too. But I do get annoyed by her neglectful but highly idealised father. And there is no mention of Pippi’s mother.

It would be great to compile a list of political/feminist books for kids. I never new what to buy for my little sister when she was growing up. Not that she really had much interest in reading and now she hates books.

Anyway, thanks for this rich reply. I love kids books and it’ll be lots of fun going through my local library on a search.

I hadn’t heard of those two you mentioned – I looked Reckless Ruby up on Amazon, and it does look great! The other one, I couldn’t even find on Amazon.

And as for other female-positive books for young children… you’re right that there really aren’t many, and it’s depressing. There were some that I used to like/recommend, but as my (radical) feminist consciousness expands even more, even books I used to recommend don’t seem so great anymore.

What do you think of “When Sophie Gets Angry” by Molly Bang? I haven’t read it in a while, but I like it because it’s about a young girl’s really huge anger, which girls aren’t usually allowed to express. (The other day, I was asking a 4-yr-old girl about what she thought of the Nutcracker ballet, which she just saw last week. She was telling me about how Fritz threw and broke Clara’s nutcracker. “Was she mad?” I asked. She replied, “No, she didn’t yell… she just cried. And that’s the moral of the story!” Ugh!)

What’s the deal with “The Paperbag Princess”? That’s another one I haven’t seen in a couple years and don’t remember enough. Yet I hear it recommended all the time.

I recently discovered “Big Momma Makes the World,” by Helen Oxenbury and Phyllis Root, and loved it. It’s a re-telling of the boring, patriarchal creation myth – this time Big Momma is the Creator!

“Keep Climbing, Girls,” by Beah E. Richards, is another one I recently read.
I’m conflicted. On the one hand, it’s great because it features a strong, independent, determined girl who climbs to the top of the tallest tree there is, despite opposition. “The only way to make a bid / for a girl’s equality / is to climb right up to the toppermost bough / of the very tallest tree,” the text says.
The problem is that the opposition the girl deals with is “Miss Nettie” (? family member?) sternly telling her not to climb the tree, warning her/taunting her that she’s a tomboy (like it’s an insult), while the girl ignores Miss Nettie and keeps climbing. I dearly wish the book was about some neighborhood boy telling the girl she can’t climb the tree, while Miss Nettie supports her, celebrates her strength and cheers her on. It sucks that the sexist ideology/opposition the girl triumphs over comes from a woman, and that when we celebrate the girl’s accomplishment, it means celebrating her lack of bonding with a woman that could have been her ally.
Oh, and the book (which is actually a poem) was originally written in 1951.

There are a bunch of children’s books that I don’t find horribly sexist, nor overtly empowering to girls… they’re just sort of in the middle. Not great, but not so harmful, either. Like the Maisy books. Maisy’s at least in overalls and a red shirt, instead of some frilly dress, but… Maisy doesn’t DO much. Are you familiar with the Olivia books? I haven’t read enough of them to really know, but Olivia seems more feisty than the usual girls in children’s books, which is good.
My favorite book, from my childhood, is “When the Sky is Like Lace,” by Elinor Lander Horwitz. It’s a beautiful and magical story of 3 sisters who go out alone during the full moon, to eat spaghetti in a gazebo with a bunch of otters, dance in the mud, sing the made-up song Katy Didn’t Do it (in defense of the katydids!), and all kinds of quirky things.

Oh, and I guess there’s always “Free to Be You and Me”… and although it’s more for older kids, I love love love PIPPI LONGSTOCKING!