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Today’s episode was inspired by an article that appeared on The Guardian with the headline ‘Picture book bias worsens as female characters stay silent.’
The piece was based on research into books published in the last year, showing that most picture books ‘present a white and male-dominated world to children.’
A child is 1.6 times more likely to read a picture book with a male rather than a female lead and that 70% of books only feature BAME characters in a non-speaking role. But is this really news? Isn’t this just how it’s always been? What impact does this have on our children and what should we be doing about it?
Lucy deserves an award for editing this one as we may have got a slight touch of the verbal diarrhoea while recording! But that’s half the fun – we might say we make this show for the listeners, but in actual fact, it is just three women who love to talk about their favourite stories.
Texts mentioned in this episode include:
- A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
- Point Horror
- Goosebumps
- Cuddly Dudley by Jez Alborough
- The Dragon Wore Pink by Christopher Hope; Angela Barrett
- The Dark Crystal
- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- The Whitby Witches by Robin Jarvis
- Star Wars Expanded Universe
- Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
- Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
- The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien
- HG Wells
- Lego Movie 2
- Enid Blyton
- General Relativity for Babies by Chris Ferrie
- Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
- The Midnight Gang by David Walliams
- Harry Potter by J K Rowling
- Burper by Robert Leeson
- Blackberry Blue by Jamila Gavin
- Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by May Gibbs
- Blinky Bill by Dorothy Wall
- Edward the Emu by Sheena Knowles
- The Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis
- Granny O’Brien and the Diamonds of Selmore by Mike Dumbleton; David Cox
- Lavender the Library Cat by Joy Cowley
- King Of The Vagabonds by Colin Dann
- Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
- Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
- The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
- Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett
- A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Julia Donaldson
- Sabriel by Garth Nix
- Which Witch? by Eva Ibbotson
- The Worst Princess by Anna Kemp; Sara Ogilvie
Further reading:
- https://www.booktrust.org.uk/globalassets/resources/represents/booktrust-represents-diversity-childrens-authors-illustrators-report.pdf
- https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/02/childrens-books-political-diversity-shift
- https://www.scarymommy.com/representation-matters-kids-books-diversity/
- https://www.bustle.com/articles/26874-25-of-childhood-literatures-most-beloved-female-characters-ranked-in-coolness
- https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/top-20-female-characters-childrens-books.html
- https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/books-with-strong-female-characters
- https://www.babble.com/babble-news/rebel-girls-experiment-childrens-books-female-characters/
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/childrens-books-give-me-a-female-squirrel-a-female-duck-a-female-anything/2018/06/01/e035082c-6354-11e8-a69c-b944de66d9e7_story.html?utm_term=.c231e7b47f42
