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Great Books For Girls Kathleen Odean is a librarian who created the most invaluable resource for parents. Great books For Girls is a guide to hundreds of books with positive female characters. At the beginning of the book she discusses the criteria she used: "I looked for girls and women who faced the world without timidity. I found female characters who are creative, capable, articulate and intelligent. They solve problems, face challenges, resolve conflicts, go on journeys. These girls are not waiting to be rescued." The guide is broken into sections for every type of book, from Easy Readers to Poetry and Magazines. Books are grouped by difficulty, beginning with picture books and ending with books young adults. It also includes several resources for parents and an appendix of great Out-of-Print books. I ran out and bought a copy for every friend I have with a young daughter. This book will provide terrific literary examples for your daughter all through her developing years AND the legwork was done for you! Each book entry includes the title, the author, the illustrator, the publishing information, an age range and a description. Odean sought to find female characters who exhibit traits not often associated with girls like athleticism, independence and bravery and left out some otherwise fine books because the characters and plots had more traditional female characters helping or care-taking. The point of Great Books For Girls is not to take away from books that illustrate positive "female" characteristics like nurturing, but rather to broaden the repertoire to include many other traits your daughter will need in real life. Oh, the places she will go! |
