Move over saviour-complex prince and damsels-in-distress—it’s time for rebel girls, mermaid boys and gender-fluid demigods. Columnist and parent Menaka Raman on what your kids should be reading today
O“‘Oh Joe! You really are so clever!’
‘Oh Joe! You’re driving the airplane so well!’” Oh Joe! Oh Joe! Oh no. I was reading The Faraway Tree books by Enid Blyton to my two boys and I’d had it with Joe and his all-round shining brilliance, and sisters Beth and Franny who seemed happy to make toffee. I decided it was time to mix things up. So I made Franny have all the amazing ideas. She and Beth dressed up as soldiers and saved Saucepan Man. Joe clapped his hands and sighed, ‘Oh how clever you are!’ To be fair, Blyton’s books are a product of her times, and while children’s books today are working much harder to bust stereotypes, research shows that they need to try a lot harder.
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