Back in March, I blogged about picture books that don't perpetuate gender stereotypes. Those of you who are interested in the topic will want to check out a great in-depth list at Outside the (Toy) Box, which includes lots of great inspiring stories for young girls. Here are the author's views on gender roles in children's books:
While there are some great books that are explicitly feminist or deal with responding to what others say girls can and can't do, I'm not actually a huge fan of those. I guess because right now my dd and ds have have no reason to think that boys and girls aren't equally important, interesting, and capable. So, right now I don't feel a need to address these issues with them. Instead, I look for non-sexist/stereotyped books that are centered around girls who are doing interesting things. Who would think that they would be so hard to find? If they are brave, clever, strong -- even better. Most of the books listed here are of this variety, the balance are books that may not feature a particularly fantastic female character, but open the gender box a bit...
