A brilliant piece from everyone's favorite NPR game show host and father to two daughters.
We haven't seen the movie yet, but loved his commentary all the same. Go read it. It's that good.
Our current female tv/movie/book role models?
Kim Possible - I could do without the midriff
Hannah Montana - nice songs, but the show makes me crazy
Hermione - good character, but did she really have to marry Ron at the end???
Lucy/Susan - (Narnia) - great characters, but Peter is always in charge, no?
The other books we've read this month have all been about boys - Phantom Tollbooth, Cricket in Times Square. I think it's time to get out "A Wrinkle in Time" again!
As much as I complain about the lack of "literary" value (and excess of product placement) in the American Girl series - at least they have strong female main characters. Son D. reads them as eagerly as his sister. When the kids were sick, we curled up in front of the TV and watched the movie about Samantha on the Hallmark channel. In spite of myself, I enjoyed it.
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7 comments:
EL Konigsburg? You might like her female leads. And her rather balanced male leads, too.
Now you've got me thinking.
Konigsburg, yes.
I always loved the Little House series, felt that those girls were pretty strong.
and how about Island of the Blue Dolphins?
Misty of Chincoteague?
I think in some ways the bigger issue these days is strong kids, doing important things. Books and cartoons today really underestimate children by so much. Then again, so does our whole society.
Little House is good. Very tangible things in those books. Cynthia Voigt was a favorite of mine growing up but I haven't read her with an adult eye.
Jacob I Have Loved? Anything by Lois Lowry?
Strong kids, not girl, but boy: Shiloh. Bridge to Terabithia (strong girl in there, too, actually).
There's a pair of books I read when I was teaching by Mary Downing Hahn. The first is Stepping on the Cracks and the second is Following My Own Footsteps. WWII, child abuse, desertion, redemption. The first book has a girl narrator, the sequel is a boy.
My 5 year old daughter is completely into Pippi Longstocking. Pippi is definitely a very strong, independent (and strange) girl!
we've read all the Little House books and have started on the Pippi books, but I've never even heard of Konigsburg, so I will have to check her out. Thanks!
Started the "Mixed Up Files..." today. Oh, how I loved that book!
OK, so embarrassed. After my comment, I looked up Konisburg on Wikipedia and guess what? She is the author of "The Mixed Up Files of Ms. Basel E. Frankweiler" which is the very book we started today. And which I loved as a child. Just never really noticed who wrote it, I guess...
I was wondering. ;^) I loved The View From Saturday, when I was teaching middle school math. It came out too late for me to read as a middleschooler, alas. But Mixed Up Files: lovely.
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