Viv Groskop in the Guardian poses this provocative question today. What do you think?
She read Pippi Longstocking, Princess Smartipants, Girls Are Not Chicks and Pirate Girl to her children, a boy and a girl, with the result that Pippi Longstocking and Pirate Girl were to be reread.
In my childhood, The Secret Garden played a similar role. There is a feisty girl character in the book alongside sickly boys and strong boys. But I also read Enid Blyton whom many regard as racist and sexist and just plain snobbish. Now I like her rather more than I did before since I read recently that the BBC refused to broadcast any of her stories on the grounds that she was "second-rate."
2 comments:
Talking of Enid Blyton, I am glad to inform you that I have just published a book on the writer, titled, The Famous Five: A Personal Anecdotage (www.bbotw.com).
Stephen Isabirye
The character of Meg in "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle is also very good - a smart girl who is good at math. There are really quite a number of good children's books that could qualify as feminist that are also very good on spiritual formation - and not all recently written.
Vicki McGrath+
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