“Each time a girl opens a book and reads a womanless history, she learns she is worth less,” write Myra and David Sadker in Failing at Fairness, their 1994 survey of “how America's schools cheat girls.” Today, six years later, the landscape of reading possibilities for girls seems better and broader. For this column, we read more than a dozen new titles about girls and women, real and imaginary. Individually and collectively they inspire by confirming the strength and talents of the female half of the population. But these books should not be thought of as reading just for girls -- it is equally important that boys have the opportunity to learn from them. As the Sadkers note, “From their earliest days at school, boys learn a destructive form of division -- how to separate themselves from girls” (p. 225). Reading across divides, whether of gender or of culture, is an important path toward the goal of educational equity.
| Adaline Falling Star. By Mary Pope Osborne. New York: Scholastic, 2000. ISBN 0-439-05947-X. 176 pp. Recommended for ages 8 to 12. |
Mary Pope Osborne begins her story with a letter to the reader, telling us that “of all the books I've written in the last twenty years Adaline Falling Star is closest to my heart. Its roots date back ten years ago when I was researching my book American Tall Tales. I read that the legendary scout Kit Carson had married a Native American woman and together they'd had a daughter named Adaline. Adaline Carson spent her early years living between her mother's Arapaho world and her father's world at Bent's Fort in Colorado..” Little historical information was to be found about the real Adaline, so the author created a story from her imagination. While Adaline is misunderstood and often mistreated by others, she eventually finds solace and friendship from a dog that insists she pay him attention. “I feel the dog sniffing at me. When I wave my hands to shoo him away, he takes advantage and licks my face, and the next thing I know I'm a goner, blubbering because I ain't been kissed in a long time. There's lots of crying and licking till I finally get the strength to push him back from me” (p.82). Adaline says of this short-legged, crop-eared, open-hearted dog, “Durn if he didn't slip into my heart as swift and sneaky as a Pawnee arrow” (p. 82). |
| My Heart Is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl. By Ann Rinaldi. New York: Scholastic, 1999. ISBN 0-590-14922-9. 179 pp. Recommended for ages 10 to 14. |
For 25 years in the late 1800s, Native American students from 76 tribes were taken from their homes to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. My Heart Is on the Ground, the diary of a Sioux girl by the name of Nannie Little Rose, teaches us how some survived the assimilationist education they received there. In an entry dated February 6, 1879, Little Rose, new to the school, writes, “They were cutting off their hair. Short. Up to their ears, so the girls looked ugly. Long, shiny braids were piled on the floor. I was so proud of my hair. With my people you cut your hair when you mourn the death of a loved one. If I let them cut my hair surely someone I loved would die! My grandfather? I screamed, but they sat me down hard in the chair and began cutting” (p. 48). Miri found many parallels between her Korean culture and that of Native Americans -- “Way back,” she noted, “we are blood related.” When Korea opened itself to Western civilizations, Koreans, too, had to cut their hair, which in their culture is like cutting off one's own head. This book will provide an opportunity for discussion of similarities across cultures and of what can happen when culture is denied. |
| Elizabeth I, Red Rose of the House of Tudor. By Kathryn Lasky. New York: Scholastic, 1999. ISBN 0-590-68484-1. 237 pp. Recommended for ages 10 to 16. |
The diary form is also used by Kathryn Lasky, in this case to tell the tale of the childhood of Elizabeth I, daughter of King Henry VIII and future queen of England. The imagined diary (one of Scholastic's “The Royal Diaries” series) begins with entries dated 1544, when Elizabeth was 11 years old. A theme throughout the book is Elizabeth's desire for fatherly love. For example, on September 15, 1544, Elizabeth writes, “Glorious news. The Queen received today a letter from Father. Boulogne is about to fall. He said it would have fallen sooner but for a shortage of gunpowder. There were considerable details about batteries and mines and bulwarks and dikes, but at the end he said 'Hearty blessings to all of our children.' All, dear diary, Father said All! He meant me. Me! Me! Me! I am so excited I am no longer an exile. Me! Me! My father loves Me!” (p. 43). |
| History Makers: Women Leaders of Nations. By Don Nardo. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 1999. ISBN 1-56006-397-1. 112 pp. Recommended for ages 10 to 16. |
In Women Leaders of Nations we can continue to read about Queen Elizabeth and her 45-year reign, finding out such things as “Elizabeth received an excellent education and learned to read Latin and Greek with facility, as well as speak French, Italian, and Spanish. Eventually she acquired the habit of reading history books for several hours almost everyday” (p. 46). For modern-day history lovers, this book offers eight- or nine-page biographies of Queen Victoria, Margaret Thatcher, Cleopatra, Queen Isabella of Spain, Catherine the Great of Russia, Golda Meir, and Benazir Bhutto. The stories of all these women are inspirational. Benazir Bhutto's rise to power as the first prime minister of Pakistan is “unarguably one of the most extraordinary personal and political feats of the twentieth century; she had come to power in a Muslim country in which men traditionally held almost all positions of authority and responsibility. In fact Bhutto was the first woman to lead a Muslim nation in modern times” (p. 84). The ups and downs of her political career are told in a compelling fashion that should capture the imagination of young people. As we read this book, we found ourselves wondering if this kind of contemporary women's history is making its way into the curriculum for girls and boys around the world. |
Women in Profile series:
Entrepreneurs. By Krista McLuskey. ISBN 0-7787-0034-8.
Humanitarians. By Carlotta Hacker. ISBN 0-7787-0033-X.
Leaders in Medicine. By Shaun Hunter. ISBN 0-7787-0032-1.
Rebels. Written by Carlotta Hacker. ISBN 0-7787-0036-4.
Visual & Performing Artists. By Shaun Hunter. ISBN 0-7787-0035-6.
All titles New York: Crabtree, 1999. 48 pp. Recommended for ages 8 to 12. |
In the glossy picture book series Women in Profile, you can find women of today and women from the past to admire. A strength of the series is that it includes women from all parts of the world -- Czechoslovakia, France, Guatemala, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and more. We read about and enjoyed pictures of women we already knew of and met new women well worthy of our attention. There is, for example, Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental activist profiled in Rebels. As with the other women described in these books, Wangari is not presented as flawless. Instead the author places her accomplishments within the hardships and disappointments that invariably come in life. We read that Wangari's reforestation project was a success that ended her marriage: “Her husband was jealous of her success, and he divorced her in the early 1980s. Wangari did not want a divorce. At her divorce trial, she accused the judges for siding with her husband. To punish her for criticizing them, the judges sentenced her to six months in jail, but she was released after three days” (p. 21). As we read, we imagined the kind of class discussion that girls and boys might have as their teacher invited them to examine gender issues embedded in these women's stories. |
People in the News series:
Oprah Winfrey. By Judith Janda Presnall. ISBN 1-56006-360-2. 111 pp.
Rosie O'Donnell. By Stuart A. Kallen. ISBN 1-56006-546-X. 96 pp.
Book books San Diego, CA: Lucent, 1999. Recommended for ages 10 to 16. |
More extensive biographies of women are available in another series, Lucent Books' People in the News. Here we can read about Oprah Winfrey and Rosie O'Donnell, two American actors and television personalities who succeed despite childhood difficulties. O'Donnell's mother died when she was 10, and her father was an alcoholic; Winfrey was the victim of sexual abuse. But when Oprah went to live with her father and his wife, she was required to read five books every two weeks: “She liked reading about women who had experienced hard times. One example was Jubilee, by Margaret Walker, the story of a slave fathered by the man who owned her mother. Another work that had a powerful influence was I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first volume of poet Maya Angelou's autobiography. Insights and inspiration from this book helped Oprah overcome the trauma caused by the abuse she had suffered....” (Presnall, pp. 25, 27). |
| The Importance of Maya Angelou. By Terrasita A. Cuffie. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 1999. ISBN 1-56006-532-X. 80 pp. Recommended for ages 10 to 16. |
A theme in all the biographies of women in “The Importance of...” series is the role of one or more adults who come along and make an important contribution to the young girl in trouble. In the case of American poet Maya Angelou, profiled in this book, the adult was Bertha Flowers “an educated black woman with an almost regal bearing. Angelou's relationship with Flowers was the turning point of her childhood and the beginning of the healing process. Angelou describes Flowers as 'the lady who threw me my first life line...one of the few gentlewomen I have ever known and has remained throughout my life the measure of what a human being can be'.... After captivating Maya with a recitation of a passage from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, Flowers explained that 'Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with the shades of deeper meaning.' Flowers asked Maya to visit her regularly, and Flowers gave Maya assignments such as reading and memorizing poems and later reciting them aloud to Flowers” (p. 20). Reading Maya Angelou's life story would be an enriching companion to reading her works of literature. |
| A Story from West Africa: Madoulina, a Girl Who Wanted to Go to School. By Joel Eboueme Bognomo. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills, 1999. ISBN 1-56397-769-9. 22 pp. Recommended for ages 4 to 8. |
In this story, author Joel Eboueme Bognomo also shows us the importance of a young person meeting someone who can help. This easy-to-read book with artful drawings is dedicated to all young African women and to the author's little sisters. Madoulina lives with her younger brother and mother in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Her brother's teacher, Mr. Garba, meets Madoulina and wants her to come to school, too. But because Madoulina's family is poor, her mother depends on her for help selling fritters. Madoulina explains to Mr. Garba: “My father abandoned us, and my mother is raising us all alone. She would rather Babo went to school. As for me, I'm a girl, and when I grow up I'll get married. I'll take care of my husband and children.” Mr. Garba can see that Madoulina wants to go to school, and he goes to meet with her mother. A solution is found that allows Madoulina to pursue her dream of one day becoming a doctor. |
| Kat's Surrender. By Theresa Martin Golding. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills, 1999. ISBN 1-56379-755-9. 179 pp. Recommended for ages 10 to 14. |
Two works of fiction present stories about young girls making their way when their mothers are no longer available to them. In Kat's Surrender, the mother dies of cancer. Kat, a misunderstood junior high school student, must unravel the complexities of her life, making her way through a tale of intrigue with suspicious missing persons and perplexing mysteries. The author has cleverly woven a lot of lives together in a way that only makes sense as you reach the end of the story. While the book gets off to a slow to start, it becomes a real page-turner as you try to understand what “Kat's surrender” will be. |
| Daughter. By Ishbel Moore. Toronto, ON: Kids Can, 1999. ISBN 1-55074-535-2. 216 pp. Recommended for ages 10 to 14. |
For 14-year-old Sylvie Marchione, life becomes a challenge when her mother begins acting strangely. One day Sylvie finds her mother has removed all the photos from the family albums: “I don't know anybody in these pictures. Why do I have pictures of strangers?” (p. 77). Eventually Sylvie's mother calls her just “Daughter,” because she can no longer remember her given name. But while the mother is changing, so is Sylvie, who must find her way into adulthood without the benefit of her mother's sanity. |
We believe that stories real and imagined about girls and women can play an important role in working toward the goal of universal literacy. Furthermore, it is important that such stories become more widely available as more and more females worldwide acquire literacy and interest in reading. Every classroom and educational program should be offering students -- young and old, male and female -- quality literature about the present and past lives of the women of the world.
Michelle Commeyras is an associate professor in the Department of Reading Education at the University of Georgia (309 Aderhold Hall, Athens, GA 30605, USA; e-mail michelle@coe.uga.edu). She earned her Ph.D. in Education at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana and her M.A. in Critical and Creative Thinking at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Her commentary On Choosing to Be a Literacy Animator appears elsewhere in this journal.
Miri Park's home country is Korea. She is currently a doctoral student in reading education at the University of Georgia and can be reached by e-mail at parkmiri@coe.uga.edu. She has a master's
degree in language and literacy education from Texas Tech University. Her interests include multicultural literacy and vocabulary development for ESL learners.