Quite the contrary, actually. Back when a lot of girls in her class were falling for Babymouse's powerful charms, she was loudly, vociferously, adamantly immune to them. But the charms seem obvious: clear unmistakable voice, a sense of defiance, very few words, very many pictures, and, most of all, a real, deep channeling of that all-too-fleeting sense that girls can get in second grade or so, that they are POWERFUL.I saw it work wonders for my daughter's friends; it spoke to them in some deep way. It gave voice to their sense that they were, in fact, the center of the universe, and the best things in the world. And, most likely, it spoke, too, to their fear that they were not.
She felt that Babymouse was bossy, shrill, and "thinks she's so great." And certainly this is sort of true. Why this worked to communicate empowerment to her friends but only alienated her is a complete mystery to me. I suspect it will be a different story with Child No. 2.
Instead, Child No. 1 got her power from a really sweet series, Girls to the Rescue. They were very folktale-like, and almost aggressively wholesome. She loved them, and they certainly spoke to girls about power, but unlike Babymouse (for the most part) it was a more public, external sort of power: being the one who saved the village, rather than the hero of one's own more private, internal life. The wholesomeness made me think it would be less compelling, but then again, I'm not 8.
The other power-girl books Child No. 1 reads that I love, the ones that are about really envisioning the strength possibilities for girls, are the Tamora Pierce books, like Young Warriors and Emperor Mage.
But they're definitely for older girls, and have such a deep appeal that I will promise myself to publish another post of them later.
What they're reading now.
Child No. 1: Searching for Dragons
Child No. 2: The Trek
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