Daisy May Johnson

Female Characters in Children’s Literature #kidbkgrp

So we just had a #kidbkgrp on Twitter ! It’s an online chat group for people who love to talk about children’s literature – and I’d love to see you there next time (in about three weeks or so…?). Keep an eye on the hashtag anyway because if anything exciting happens in the world of children’s literature, I’m sure we’ll want to talk about it 😉 Anyway I promise to burble joyously and plentifully about the next one so you’re sure to hear about it.

So. Inspired by this article (which I blogged in response to here) , we discussed female characters in children’s literature. The good, the bad, the brilliant and our personal favourites. There’s a whole host of reading suggestions featuring some brilliant sounding heroines. It was really interesting to see that we tended to plump for heroines when naming our personal favourites – I was wondering whether people like Maleficent would get a mention, but they didn’t which is definitely something to think about!

Here’s the storify and here’s a link to the hashtag on Twitter.

See you at the next chat! 😀

Responses

Ruby Scarlett

August 23, 2013 at 5:55 am

I definitely picked up some recommendations from that, thanks (I need to read Code Name Verity!) Also happy Noel Streatfeild was mentioned. I recently read The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale and in my review I paused when I had to describe the heroine, who’s very different from heroines I’ve encountered before. She isn’t strong, she isn’t witty, she isn’t particularly powerful (for most of the novel really she’s powerless). She is, however, superbly well-written and, I thought, very brave as she constantly faces her fears. The fact that I thought one of the secondary characters – Enna, who’s very witty and has charisma Ani doesn’t possess – almost outshone the heroine made me uncomfortable. Why do I value that more than bravery, kindness and intuition? That really had me think about what we value in female characters, or even in characters in general. Ani’s an unlikely heroine, but why is she so unlikely? Good food for thought.

Reply
1. nobodyjones
  
  August 23, 2013 at 7:48 am
  
  Hi Ruby. Do! CNV is outstandingly good – and it’s one for me that grew on the second reading. Interested very much in what you say about The Goose Girl – I’ll have to pick that one up.
  
  Reply
Zoe

August 23, 2013 at 7:20 am

kudos for you for facilitating this – thanks indeed. 🙂 Hope you got some fudge!

Reply
1. nobodyjones
  
  August 23, 2013 at 7:41 am
  
  Thank you Zoe! And thank you for the fudge inspiration 😉
  
  Reply
Juxtabook

August 24, 2013 at 3:26 pm

What an excellent idea! I’m sorry I missed it and enjoyed reading back on the thread.

Reply
1. nobodyjones
  
  August 24, 2013 at 3:46 pm
  
  We’ll be doing another #kidbkgrp in three weeks or so – let me know if you’ve got any topic suggestions! 🙂
  
  Reply
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