As you may have heard, last week author William Sleator passed away. I met him once during the Midwinter ALA Conference in Philadelphia. He was part of an Abrams brunch in which librarians munched on food and spoke to various authors. I was pleased to get Mr. Sleator’s autograph on a book for a friend and remember him as a nice guy. I also remember another fellow there who spoke to the occasional librarian but was by no means hounded by them. Since that brunch Jeff Kinney and his Diary of a Wimpy Kid books have gone on to fame and fortune but Mr. Sleator was big in his own way and his last book, The Phantom Limb, will be published this October by Amulet Books. A page in remembrance of Mr. Sleator is up here. If you’d like to leave a comment, please do.
- Speaking of ALA Conferences, when I attend one there’s nothing I like better than to slip into an ALA Notables meeting to watch the crew eviscerate the unworthy and laud the laudable. Now the ALSC blog informs us that “The 2012 Notable Children’s Books Committee invites ALSC members to suggest titles for consideration for our annual list of notable children’s books.” Awesome! If there are titles that you think are particularly worthy, please be so good as to visit the blog to find out how to nominate them. I’ve already a couple of my own favorites in mind . . .
- And if it’s “Best” lists you’re looking for, why not check out a new one compiled by the two most prominent young, male, web-savvy children’s librarians out there. You can probably already guess who they are, cantcha? Yes, Mr. Schu and Mr. Jonker have joined forces (when you say their names like that, don’t they sound like Batman villains?) and produced their Top 20 Children’s Books of 2010. A remarkable list, it pays homage to books I adored (The Night Fairy, Farm, etc.) though there will always inevitably be one or two you love that get missed (Hereville, man, Hereville!). Well worth checking out.
- Now it is time to brag. Because while I’m sure your moms are awesome and everything, only one mom won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry for 2011. Yup. That would be mine. Her manuscript, A Mind Like This, will now be published by the University of Nebraska Press. Because, naturally, she’s one of our greatest living poets. Just sayin’.
- This one goes out to the librarians in the field. The Oxford University Press blog has revealed info on 120 years of census data on American librarians. There’s lots of fun info to be culled. Personally I like the fact that “Today, the marriage rate among librarians is the highest it has ever been with 62 percent of librarians married in 2009.&
Professor Severus Snape has been crowned the winner of the Harry Potter World Cup. Over at MTV News, 64 characters were pitted against one another to determine who is the greatest Harry Potter character of all time.
MTV News asked Alan Rickman on what he will miss about playing Snape in the films. He replied: “I won’t really miss anything because it’s been such an extraordinarily complete character to play. To go back…I don’t know what the scenario would be. It’s been so much about he appears to be one thing and then you find out a bit more about him as time goes on.”
MTV created a chart to record each round of the competition, including star characters like Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. After 7.4 million votes were cast, Snape emerged victorious against Weasley in the final round. Do you think the right character came out on top?
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
On Thursday, May 5, 2011, Pamela Paul of The New York Times wrote an article entitled “New Study Finds Gender Bias in Children’s Books.” Paul sheds the spotlight on the study “Gender in Twentieth-Century Children’s Books: Patterns of Disparity in Titles and Central Characters” published in the April issue of Gender & Society. According to the study “there has been a bias toward male characters — men, boys and, yes, animals — in children’s literature over the last century.”
Janice McCabe, the study’s lead author, examined approximately 6,000 children’s books published from 1900 to 2000. “Of those, 57 percent had a central male character compared with only 31 percent with female protagonists.” In addition, “at most one-third of children’s books published per year included central female characters that are adult women or female animals. But male animals or male adults appeared in 100 percent.”
For those of you who are avid readers of children’s literature, like myself, this is certainly not a revelation. I will be the first to admit that I grew up reading Clifford the Big Red Dog, Curious George and Winnie the Pooh, to name a few. What do they all have in common? Well, a quick survey shows that the protagonists in each are male. This in no way diminishes these books as classics in the canon of children’s literature but it does illustrate that a fundamental disparity exists.
In truth, whether they realize it or not, girls and young women long for female protagonists in the books they read. I know I did. Hermione Granger is one of the many reasons I adore the Harry Potter series. She is a brilliant, courageous and strong young woman. It’s incredibly empowering to have a female character that is not only equal to but also excels beyond her male counterparts. How often can you say that? Unfortunately, not often enough. And that, dear readers, is the problem.
Now more than ever girls and young women need protagonists that speak to them. Protagonists whose characteristics they can emulate. Hermione Granger‘s brilliance. Olivia the Pig‘s feistiness. Katniss Everdeen‘s strength.
The audience is waiting. It’s time to answer the call.
0 Comments on Where Are All the Girls? as of 1/1/1900
Tasha Tudor for best Frances Hodgson Burnett illustrator!
And congrats to your mom!
Hereville, man, Hereville! (I agree.)
Not to be Pedantic Twilight Fan, but Bella is only “urged to eat by a man” maybe twice in the whole series, and both of those times she is distracted by other events in her life and just isn’t thinking about food. All her other meals are eaten of her own free will. I don’t expect everyone to love Twilight as much as I do, but I’m tired of people exaggerating or making things up in an attempt to discredit the books.
I remember three instances in the first book myself, but I’ll need to double check that to make sure. Her father once, Edward once or twice. I don’t tend to exaggerate unless I need to. But admittedly I never read the other books so it’s entirely possible that she eats consistently and well after the first book.
Bravo to your mom. I LOL when I read “while I”m sure your moms are awesome and everything, only one mom won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry.” I love that lead-in. I might have to borrow – with attribution, of course – when I’m trumpeting my mom. Nice shout out for your mom. Congratulations.
Thanks for the Africa Access link! I’ve got a relative who can definitely use this to give her son books before they move.
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