Tree of Knowledge dropped a little goodie from heaven, two lists of alternative princess books that I thought many of you with daughters (or little gift recipents, anyway, in Eszter’s case) might also be happy to know about.
First, an anti-princess reading list (you have to look for it on the sidebar, it doesn’t pop up) that includes many ideas that some of you have mentioned along the way as well as several new finds. Super.
Second, a best princess list. Eureka! Tree, where have you been all my life?
radical mama
December 5, 2007 | 6:16 pm1
Those are great lists! We love the Kevin Henke books. A is just now getting to the age where we can read some chapter books with fewer pictures. Of course, The Princess Bride could be on that list. Buttercup is a pretty tough cookie.
blue milk
December 5, 2007 | 6:49 pm2
Thanks for the list!
bitchphd
December 6, 2007 | 1:36 am3
I want to personally endorse the Daring Book for Girls, which PK has (because after all, he already had the Dangerous Book for Boys, which we’d agreed was sexist because what, girls don’t want to know how to make paper airplanes?). He’s determined to follow its directions for making a lemonade stand this weekend.
subarctic mama
December 6, 2007 | 2:22 am4
Great lists. Thanks for sharing these.
The Modesto Kid
December 6, 2007 | 10:56 am5
Sylvia got the Daring Book as a gift from her aunt; I’m glad to see people who’ve read it like it — just leafing through I was feeling a little skeptical.
mom
December 6, 2007 | 12:06 pm6
Me too, modesto kid. I didn’t dislike it, I just wondered if a kid would like it. It seemed a little too, I don’t know, too, too — dry? rigid (there is one right way to do things)? something.
I also just hate the instructions for boys vs. instructions for girls. I mean, man, as bphd shows — who wouldn’t want to make a lemonade stand?
The Modesto Kid
December 6, 2007 | 12:21 pm7
Yeah, maybe we should get her the Dangerous Book to go along with it. Funny: the first thing Sylvia did when she unwrapped the package (after saying unironically, “Ooh, a book! That’s the greatest present ever!”) was to scan through the table of contents, turn to p. 212 IIRC for the entry on “Boys”, look for a minute and then put a bookmark in there. As far as “dry”, I think based on very minimal scanning, the authors are going for a kind of anachronistic sound. Don’t know how well they acheived it.
Mom'smom
December 6, 2007 | 2:28 pm8
Ok, as a reminder of your youth, I will be getting Thing 1 Sylvia jean the Drama Queen. Hope she doesn’t stomp her feet like you did.
mom
December 6, 2007 | 3:21 pm9
Mom, if you out me on my childhood one more time, I will block you from commenting! I know you don’t know much about bloggy land, but I have the magic power to do such things bwahahahaha.
xoxo love you
PS - Mom, when you comment and it asks for your URL, just leave it blank — unless you have your own website I don’t know about.
ScienceWoman
December 6, 2007 | 3:40 pm10
Thanks for these lists. Minnow is still a little young yet for books, but I’m already fighting princess-themed clothes. (BTW, Bitch PhD pointed me here a few weeks ago, and I love the blog).
Tree of Knowledge
December 7, 2007 | 2:55 am11
Holy crap. My visitors have skyrocketed in the last two days. I’m pretty sure I found those lists via Bitch PhD though. But while I have your attention, here are four good anthologies of feminist fairy tales appropriate for reading with children:
Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters–Kathleen Ragan
The Outspoken Princess and The Gentle Knight–Jack Zipes
Don’t Bet on the Prince–Jack Zipes
Mirror, Mirror–Jane Yolen & Heidi E.Y. Stemple
and Angela Carter’s collections of fairy stories are very good.
and the folks at the surlalunfairytales.com discussion board are a wonderful resource for fairy tales and fantasy questions, including book ideas. And the website is wonderful if you like fairy tales.
Candace
December 13, 2007 | 8:27 pm12
great info. I found this at NOW http://www.now.org/store/amazon.html?ref=0920236162/104-9119700-4358342&outofstock=yes?mv_pc=holidays