Girls A to Z
Finding good movies that feature strong females and inspiring occupations and roles for these characters remains rather difficult, but thankfully there are many, many wonderful picture books and YA fiction that do just this. A recent picture book that we stumbled across at the library, Eve Bunting’s Girls A to Z, really pleased both my daughter and me.
My daughter has expressed that she wants to be a boy on multiple occasions because of what other children (and some of their moms) have said about how girls aren’t supposed to wear what she wears or likes what she likes, and it’s frustrating because no matter how many times I tell her that there are so many ways to be a girl, it’s not like there are examples at every corner. Girls A to Z does this perfectly.
It’s an alphabet book, obviously—so each letter corresponds to a girl’s name and what she likes to do. For example, Aliki is an astronaut—and Suzanne Bloom’s bright, colorful illustrations feature Aliki in space pajamas hovering over her bead with her teddy bear. And while “Belinda likes ballet,” “Chris is a computer whiz.” The dancing Belinda is wearing super bright, bold patterns and a cape as she dances with a gap-toothed grin, while Chris is pictured with her wheelchair (and streamers) and two pets—a bird and a cat. They show the many different ways there are to be a girl!
There aren’t any stereotypes in the book, and the girls featured come in all different races and ages. There are older girls who babysit and younger ones who play with toys. There’s an engineer, a firefighter, a cook, a racecar driver. There are girls who like to teach, who like to be the umpire, who like to play instruments or do yoga or care for animals.
At the end of the book Bunting advises girls that they can be whoever they want to be and that the world is here for them. Wow—don’t you wish someone had told you that when you were younger? My mother certainly did, but according to teachers and other adults, it was the opposite; you were here for the world and you’d better play by the rules, including gender ones.
My daughter has a lot of friends who are self-proclaimed “girly girls,” and whose parents proudly proclaim this fact as well; when they find out that my girl is not a boy, they are surprised, then knowingly remark, “Oh, I went through a tomboy phase.” This isn’t a phase; this is who she is! Books like this can help not just my daughter, who needs to know that being a girl means being who she is and not who everyone seems to think she should be—but also other parents and children who think there’s only one way to be “girly” and project that upon my daughter.
