Katherine, fortunately, has never seemed constrained by the gender of the protagonist. She just loves to read.
For myself growing up, for ever "boy's" SF tale, there was a Laura Wilder prairie tale. I was much more interested in the content than in whether the book was led by a hero or heroine.
While it could be handled poorly, I'd much rather see reading lists that focused more on the type of story than in the protagonists involved. #ddtb
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On the Rights of Reading and Girls and Boys — The Horn Book
Hilary Rappaport talks about boys and girls reading in the May/June Horn Book Magazine.
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I think Ms Rappaport’s children are very lucky.
When one of my grandson’s was younger, he absolutely loved the Olivia books, especially when she sang REALLY LOUD SONGS. He’s lucky, too, because his mother puts few restrictions on his reading.
When my boys were young, my ex-husband had very definite ideas on what they should read and with what toys they should play. This was difficult for me to deal with, because I had been a child who was allowed to read anything I wanted. There are so many good books out there, that relegating them to gender based reading is a travesty.
BTW, when I was a girl, all science fiction and fantasy was relegated to the “youth” section of the library by a librarian who thought they were all “kid stuff.” Kids had cards stamped “youth,” and could not get anything out of the adult section. I was 11 or so when I first ran into Cthulhu.
My mom certainly never put any gender restrictions on what I could or “should” read. There was a lot of SF in the “Youth” SF section of our library — much of the classic golden and silver age stuff, in fact. I think the differentiator was if there was a rocket ship on the cover it was considered juvenile.
I read all kinds of books, as long as it has a strong story I don't care. The only books I really don't like are the ones with weak women (Twilight anyone?) Some of my favorite books have a male lead or at least a mostly male cast…but the ones where the women are simpering idiots drive me crazy. I tried to read Song of Ice and Fire and I just couldn't get through some of the chapters with Sansa and her mom. Grrr…
Before I go to read the article:
In the mid-60’s in San Diego, I was at a magnet-ish sort of school for 5th grade, and I think we only went once to the local branch library to check out some books–or perhaps that’s the only time I remember. I can’t recall the author or title, but there may have been a female mouse as the main character. Not Potter or NIMH, but innocuous. Apparently either my mother or the teacher had to approve my borrowing that book. I certainly didn’t understand why then, and I’m no better off now! It really wasn’t an adult book, and I was in 5th grade.
The Albuquerque PLS was similarly hidebound–I have a sneaking suspicion thatthe Andre Norton novels in the hallway library at the Catholic school I attended would be in the adult section at any of their branches. I went through the areas of interest in the childrens’ section relatively fast, even if I could only check out 10 to last me a whole two weeks. Somehow I did manage to get approval for fiction from the adult section.
As with some of you, my parents didn’t put much in the way of limits in what I read, as we did not with Arthur (we were happy when he wanted to read something not assigned).
I agree with the article–we already know too much about what divides us: tell us what unites us in our joy of reading, in our joy of a good story.