Sorry I have been away so long. I was finishing up my degree and that didn't leave a lot of extra time for blogging. I did it though I graduated with a 4.0 too! Woohoo! But my personal triumphs are not why you are here. You are here because of princess stories.
If you have a daughter, chances are you have read princess stories about 5,000 times. They all boil down to the same thing. Pretty girl with a tiara wears a fabulous dress and is nice to everyone. If you are lucky enough to be reading a princess origin story then she gets to be rescued by a handsome prince or perhaps even more insulting friendly forest creatures or rodents. Don't get me wrong I love Gus Gus and Jaq, but are you telling me mice were more capable of saving Cinderella than the girl herself? I don't think so.
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| Studying chemical reactions |
Now don't get me wrong I am not an angry bra burning feminist saying princess stories are bad. Cutes Patoots has watched every princess movie. I buy her princess dolls, coloring books, clothes. Hey I even found princess swimsuits that look like the dresses. I loved Disney Princesses growing up. I can still be caught singing my heart out to "Part of Your World" during my daughter's dance class (yes that happened. No I wasn't embarrassed. I did it again the next class.) But there has to be more for little girls. I also buy Cutes Patoots super hero stuff in about the same volume and we are working on her Star Wars collection. (If anyone finds a girls Darth Vader swimsuit let me know, just saying.) Well recently something suddenly reached out of the pages of books and slapped me in the face...with pepper spray. Yes it was that startling a realization. So here is the tale.
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| Even Batman needs to eat. |
Costco had hard bound compilation books of those first reader type books on sale for $8. It was 5 or 6 stories in one book at a great price. (I love Costco for well, everything, but I always check out the books). The first of these I bought was the My Little Pony Phonics Fun edition because Cutes is pony mad. We loved the little stories. They were short and sweet and had phonics sounds and sight words. Yay win. Then we bought the Disney Princess book because she asked for it. We read those and they were great. Again short and sweet. nothing wrong with these books on their own. Well then I loved these collection books so much I bought the super hero book and she really loved that. Seriously I can't read "I am Iron Man" one more time or I might scream. But when we finished the entire collection I realized something. In EVERY. SINGLE. super hero story the main characters were smart, brave or they used science. They had careers or degrees in S.T.E.M. subjects. We read the princess book again. The princesses were beautiful, kind, well-mannered. Tiana was a hard worker. Never once was the word smart or science used. I started to think over all the other princess stories we read and I don't remember those words being emphasized. If anything they are 'brave' in a throw away sentence. I stewed for days. I vowed "no more princesses!" and then I got a grip. That was not happening. So I make sure to use those words to describe Cutes Patoots. I talk about the science of things because I want her to be interested in S.T.E.M. subjects. They are important and I don't want her to grow up thinking her biggest asset in that she is pretty and I certainly don't want her thinking she NEEDS a man to rescue her. Wanting one on occasion is fine, but she needs to know she can rescue him sometimes too.
Well fast forward about 2 months and we are back at Costco (did I mention I love Costco) and my mom was with us. We were perusing the books and she found
Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible, by Ursula Vernon. We both fell in love with it in the store. Costco also had the second book in the series
Hamster Princess: Of Mice and Magic. My mom bought both books worried we wouldn't find them again (Cutes is a bit spoiled). What you need to know about the Harriet books is they are chapter books designed for 3rd-8th graders, however there are pictures in the form of comics on as well as full paragraphs. However they totally work for a 3 year old. Cutes adores Harriet and Mumphry, Harriet's faithful quail. Harriet is brave, she is smart, she knows all of her fractions. She beats some lame prince at checkers while he patronizes her. She fights ogrecats without the help of anyone but Mumphry, who is her sidekick. She is everything I want in my daughter because she is also kind and reasonable (well sort of) and she uses logic (sort of, you have to read to understand that!) But I can absolutely say this is my favorite princess story. It has action, adventure so it still works for a boy. Possibly best of all it doesn't talk down to the kids. It uses words they may not know and will need to either look up or have explained. These are so good I have to use HUGE amounts of self control not to cave when Cutes Patoots begs for 'just one more chapter' or to not cave and read it to her in the middle of the day or the three times throughout the day she says she wants to go to bed, so can we read Harriet now? It takes everything in me not to read the books after she goes to bed. So if you are looking for a good princess story or just a kids book that appeals to the little ones but doesn't make you want to scream about women not just being objects. Then check out Harriet, but be warned you may end up with a new favorite children's author.
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| Not every princess needs rescued |
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