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For readers of eight-plus this month, The List of Things that Will Not Change (Andersen) from the Newbery-winning author Rebecca Stead follows Bea, a girl adapting to life with separated parents, as her dad prepares to marry his boyfriend, Jesse. Bea is excited about acquiring a new sister, Sonia, but will Sonia be as keen? As Bea contends with guilt and anxiety and learns to cope with change, family love remains a constant in this beautifully constructed, deceptively simple story.

Second in Sharna Jackson's murder mystery series set on the Tri estate, and featuring black detective sisters Nik and Norva, Mic Drop (Knights Of) begins with the fatal fall of pop star TrojKat from a tower roof. Kat had moved a long way from her roots on the estate, and global superstardom was just around the corner - but can Nik and Norva figure out who had reason to contrive an "accident"? Offering emotional impact as well as an intriguing, intricate puzzle, Jackson's writing is original and vivid.

Fantasy fans should snap up Jenni Spangler's superlative debut, The Vanishing Trick (Simon & Schuster). The orphaned Leander leads a precarious existence as a pickpocket until he crosses paths with the unscrupulous Madame Pinchbeck. Bound to her service, Leander, Charlotte and Felix must act as the stars of Pinchbeck's seances, trapped by objects that hold part of their souls, and into which they vanish when commanded. Will they ever be free of their fearsome mistress, or be reunited with their loved ones? Atmospheric and transporting, with illustrations by Chris Mould, this is a delectably spooky Victorian adventure.

From Alex Gino, author of George, comes the sequel (Scholastic). As middle school and puberty begin, Rick is keen to befriend Melissa, whom he previously knew as George, but Rick's best friend, Jeff, is violently homophobic and transphobic. This exploration of feelings, change, courage and acceptance is a rare and essential addition to books for this age group.

For seven-plus, an indomitable young activist is here to make a change in Hope Jones Saves the World (Andersen) by Josh Lacey, illustrated by Beatriz Castro. Via funny, believable blog posts, Hope narrates the progress of her anti-plastic struggle, with protests outside the local supermarket, attempts to get her grumpy neighbour recycling and missteps along the way. Lacey's focus on small gains and collective action makes for a lively and heartening read.

A gorgeous and informative paean to plants, I Ate Sunshine for Breakfast (Flying Eye) by Michael Holland and Philip Giordano will suit five-plus readers with its colourful graphic illustrations and well-judged text, guiding the reader through what plants need to thrive, how they adapt to adversity and the myriad ways in which we depend on them, with simple but exciting projects to try at home.

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I Ate Sunshine for Breakfast by Michael Holland and Philip Giordano. Photograph: Philip Giordana

Deliciously silly, with hilarious catchphrases, Joanna Nadin's The Worst Class in the World (Bloomsbury), illustrated with grubby glee by Rikin Parekh, is a great cheer-up book. According to headteacher Mrs Bottomley-Blunt, 4B are the rottenest of eggs - when will they win a prize like 4A? But somehow the shambolic crew always muddle through, even though Mr Nidgett keeps threatening to leave teaching and become a lion-tamer.

In picture books, Sarah McIntyre returns with Don't Call Me Grumpycorn! (Scholastic), in which Unicorn takes to space in search of the world's most fabulous planet. Resplendent in firework colours, this is enormous fun to read aloud, with a gentle but clear message about the importance of friendship.

Friendship is also the focus of I'm Sticking With You (S&S) by Smriti Halls and Steve Small. A galumphing bear always helps out his squirrel best friend, with mixed consequences - until Squirrel tells Bear he'd like some space. Deftly humorous images and warmly rhyming text make for a lovely book to cuddle up with.

Finally, from Jackie Morris and James Mayhew, Mrs Noah's Garden (Otter-Barry) is an exquisitely hopeful account of what might have happened when the ark touched land. Mayhew's glorious collaged artwork combines with Morris's restrained text to show how bare rock and sparse vegetation can become a flourishing garden, nurturing new life of all kinds.

by Lev Rosen, Penguin, £7.99 Randy has loved Camp Outland, a summer haven for LGBTQ+ kids, for years. This time, though, things will be different; abandoning his beloved musicals and makeup, Randy has reinvented himself as butch, muscular Del, determined to win the heart of Hudson, who dates only "masc" boys. But is his transformation worth it - and what will happen when Hudson discovers the truth? Blissfully comic (and explicit) utopian queer romance.

by Elizabeth Acevedo, Hot Key, £7.99When Camino hears that her father's flight has gone down en route to the Dominican Republic, neither she nor Yahaira expect to discover that they are sisters. In her trademark taut, intensely evocative poetry, Carnegie-winning Acevedo tells a moving story of different lives inextricably intertwined, and of grief, bitterness and renewal, in a new verse novel that is as transporting and powerful as The Poet X.

by Rutendo Tavengerwei, Hot Key, £7.99 In this story of present-day Zimbabwe and conflict-riven Rhodesia, talented swimmer Tumi is mistrusted for his albinism; his own uncle even connives at his kidnap. Sent to stay with his grandmother Thandiwe, Tumi mistrusts her in turn - until reading her story helps him understand what they share. Tragedy, hatred and atrocity are shown with unflinching directness, but Tavengerwei's second novel is also an eloquent plea for acceptance and reconciliation.

by William Hussey, Usborne, £7.99 Dylan is afraid to come out until flamboyant, magnificent Ellis arrives at school. When they are outed via social media, he's proud to acknowledge his sexuality and his beloved boyfriend. But suddenly, tragedy strikes. Grieving and shocked, Dylan is determined to investigate, no matter what uncomfortable truths he uncovers. Almost unbearably poignant, this tender evocation of first love and loss is also warm, funny and profoundly thought-provoking.
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Children's books roundup - the best new picture books and novels

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For readers of eight-plus this month, The List of Things that Will Not Change (Andersen) from the Newbery-winning author Rebecca Stead follows Bea, a girl adapting to life with separated parents, as her dad prepares to marry his boyfriend, Jesse. Bea is excited about acquiring a new sister, Sonia, but will Sonia be as keen?

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Research by the Observer newspaper shows how picture books present children a worryingly lopsided view of the world: with males outnumbering females 2:1 among significant speaking characters, and male villains in 89% of books with 'baddies'. Jess Day takes a look at the results.

The Observer's research looked at 2017's 100 top selling picture books: non-human characters (animals and monsters) were nearly twice as likely to be male, while you were twenty times more likely to come across an all-male book, than an all-female book.

Not a surprise - bias across the board

These results are troubling, but not surprising. It's consistent with what we see in films and children's TV programming, with research showing that just 31% of speaking characters in films are female, and similar findings from previous research into gender bias in children's literature.

The subject is certainly under the spotlight with publishers, and there's a noticeable rash of books specifically raising the profile of girls and women, such as Goodnight stories for rebel girls or Great women who changed the world, making the most of the suffragette centenary as a marketing hook. But overall, progress seems glacially slow.

Many of the books on the bestseller list are not new titles - parents understandably return to the books they remember enjoying, from the Gruffalo to The Very Hungry Caterpillar. But worryingly, books published more recently didn't come out noticeably better in the research.

Teaching inequality

Kids learn about the world through play, and through reading and media. This kind of skew prepares kids for a real world where males get most of the speaking parts. We're all coached to see a situation where males are dominating as normal, and this is likely one of the reasons change is slow. Even to an adult who's aware of the issues, a very male-dominated situation may seem fairly equal.

An example: the zoo in 35-year-old best-seller Dear Zoo doesn't feature a single female animal. Speaking personally, what's even odder is that I'd read it to my small daughter about 200 times before I noticed. We've all been surrounded by this bias all our lives, and it's hard sometimes even to see it.

And of course, once you look a little closer you'll notice something else: when it comes to human representations in children's books, white boys and men overwhelmingly get to drive the narrative and have most of the dialogue. Women and girls, and black and minority ethnic characters, are relegated to sidekick roles, recede into the background in non-speaking parts, or are absent altogether.

A cumulative effect

As with the findings of Let Toys Be Toys toy catalogues and TV ads research, the problem is not one ad/book. The problem is with how the message builds into a wider picture. An image of a girl playing with a doll - great. A catalogue with 16 pages of girls and dolls and no boys - more of a problem.

A book with a male protagonist and villain, fine. A whole bookshelf where males do most of the doing and the talking... maybe time to consider whether this is really what we want to tell our children about who matters and how the world works?

Boys do read about girls

The assumption that boys won't read about girls, or watch programming about girls is very embedded in the media and publishing industries, but the evidence is weak, and overdue for challenging, as author John Dougherty entertainingly outlines in this blogpost Why do we believe these things?

For starters, it just isn't true - boys can of course take an interest in stories about girls, as our ' Boys read girls' gallery, and contributions to this Guardian Witness project showed. Authors such as Rob Biddulph tell how boys and girls have loved their girl-led stories.

Sadly though, all too often, boys are made to feel that they're not allowed to show an interest in girls' stories. And the research done by media organisations or publishers doesn't necessarily dig into this, often researching with children in single-sex groups, or asking them their opinions in front of peers.

An anecdote told at the Children's Media Conference a couple of years ago by PBS exec Linda Simensky is telling: in a focus group she asked a set of eight boys how many of them watched Power Puff Girls, a cartoon show about girl superheroes. Only one boy raised his hand. Later the question was asked again, but this time they were asked to look down at their laps, knowing the other boys could not see their response - and seven out of the eight said that they did watch the programme.

But most importantly, if boys are unsure of whether they're allowed to identify with a female character, this is concerning, and something we need to work out how to overcome, not just passively accept. It's not OK for the adult world to reinforce the idea that it's somehow demeaning for a boy to take an interest in what a girl might do, think or feel.

The main target audience for picture books is too young to have any strong opinions about whether the main characters are male or female, so a gender bias in books and media at this age is likely a key factor in setting this up.

Villains and monsters

Story book baddies were overwhelmingly male in the Observer's research - this matches the findings of a recent piece of research by bloggers Hannah and Leo Garcia, who looked at the animals featured on children's clothing.

The animals on boys' clothing were predominently fierce, dangerous animals - lions, crocodiles, dinosaurs, dragons, while the girls' clothing featured rabbits, horses, unicorns and mice. Bluntly, the boys are set up as predators, the girls as prey, boys as wild creatures, girls as domesticated.

What's the harm?

The harm to girls is obvious - they learn that they're not really meant to take up space in the world, that their voices don't matter as much. They're coached to expect little. The publishers may say, 'Boys won't read about girls, girls don't mind,' but girls do notice, and they mind very much, if my daughter is anything to go by. However, they learn very quickly that it's just tough. I minded a lot that there were no female characters in my childhood favourite, The Hobbit. Should I have written to the publisher to tell them just how much it bothered me?

But what on earth are boys meant to take from this? That fierce and wild are the only way to be, that villainy is somehow linked to maleness? And that they are entitled to expect a world where men get to talk more than women do?

Research by Australian academic Dale Spender found that male students consistently overestimated how much the women spoke in class, considering 30% female speech as over half. And efforts to even out male and female contributions provoked protests from the men - equal representation felt unfair to them. It's not hard to see how we end up with certain Star Wars fans yelping in protest at yet another film with a female lead.

If you've been raised to expect the whole cake, seeing someone else get a slice might feel shockingly unfair.

Parents want something different

The change in the best seller lists may be slow, but it's certainly the case that parents are starting to demand better when it comes to gender balance. A recent survey of Australian parents found that 92% of parents of 0-3 year olds felt that it was important that boys and girls should be treated the same, and that 79% wanted to take action to challenge traditional gender stereotypes. Another international survey of parents found that a majority thought that children should be raised in as gender neutral a way as possible to guard against stereotypes.

My own son is a gentle, thoughtful character, who as a little one refused to wear clothes with dinosaurs or sharks on - too scary. He went through a phase of worrying about whether it was OK for him to read stories about girls. He just needed a little reassurance, and left that phase behind.

But what if I'd just accepted it? Or told him that it was normal to reject half the planet as beneath his notice? I'd like my son to be ready for a world where a woman is his equal, and a woman may well be his boss, without him feeling like something's gone very awry.

What can we do?
As parents and book-buyers:

Do a 'ten book test' on your bookcase - pick ten books at random and take a look at the gender balance. How many male and female characters? Who gets to speak? Act? What are male and female characters shown doing?

If the balance isn't as good as you'd like, look for, share and give as gifts books with better gender balance: our friends @GenderDiary have crowdsourced a fantastic kids book list

Don't just seek out girl-led stories as 'great for girls'. Boys need to read about girls too.

Kids quite often notice what adults don't. Use questions as a chance to discuss balance and inclusion - children have a strong sense of what's fair!

Teachers and educators

Take a critical look at your bookshelves, and think about whether you can improve the range and balance on offer. Specialist suppliers like Letterbox Library can help.

Books can be a great starting point for group discussions about stereotypes - check out the suggestions in the NUT's It's Child's Play resource.

Publishers

Think critically about the received wisdom that boys won't read about girls - what research is this based on? Is it self-perpetuating? Is it more about adult book-buyers than children's real interests? Is it something that ought to be reinforced, or undermined?

Commission, promote and market more balanced books. Support authors who are trying to provide more balance, and nudge those who perhaps haven't considered the issues. Seriously - would that story be so different if the wolf were female? Might it even be better?

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Constructing bias - the wonky world of picture books

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The Observer's research looked at 2017's 100 top selling picture books: non-human characters (animals and monsters) were nearly twice as likely to be male, while you were twenty times more likely to come across an all-male book, than an all-female book. These results are troubling, but not surprising.

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professional development for teachers qld

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Professional Development for Educators | Services | Literacy

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You can access our expertise in children's literature in the form of professional development for teachers and school groups,

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Crossing The Boundaries, 1st, Bull, Geoff & Anstey, Michele | Buy Online at Pearson

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A report in the Times has quoted a secondary school teacher who complained that their year 7 intake no longer knew how to tell a story. "They knew what a fronted adverbial was, and how to spot an internal clause, and even what a preposition was - but when I set them a task to write a story, they broke down and cried," reported the teacher.
Pity our children - they're being turned into grammar robots at school | Gaby Hinsliff
The fact that no importance is placed on storytelling makes me very frustrated not only because it puts so little value or emphasis on children's creativity, but also because storytelling is more than simply an art - it is a crucial skill for life and commerce.

Politicians should know this better than anyone. What is "Vote for us and the country will be strong and stable" if not a story? Or "Make America great again", for that matter. Everything made of words is a story - from the stories we tell ourselves to the ones we watch on TV to the ones we relate to colleagues at the water cooler.

This reluctance to teach story-writing is because of a fundamental misunderstanding. I am not someone who thinks we should abandon measurement entirely, even in creative writing. Because it is not just making stuff up (although there are those who can do it instinctively, just as some can understand grammar instinctively). What everyone on both sides of the debate seems to be missing is that storytelling can be taught and tested.

I know that, because I teach it - albeit at an adult level. People say children are natural storytellers, but this is not at all true, any more than it is of adults. Or rather, they are not naturally good storytellers. Most stories by children, although they may be charming, are boring because they are just one unconnected event after another. In other words, they make no sense and have no direction, causality or point.

For stories to work, a whole array of measurable principles can be applied. We shouldn't be asking children about fronted adverbs, but about act structures, character arcs, reversals and the qualities of protagonists (and antagonists). What is the difference between real speech and fictional dialogue? What constitutes a dramatic event? The list goes on and on. The craft (not the talent) of storytelling can be taught - and tested - in the same way as grammar. This would be so much more valuable than parroting parts of speech (to this day, I know virtually nothing - formally - about grammar).

So let's not waste our time throwing rocks at the government and claiming that they want us all to be joyless robots (although I suspect this is partly true). Let's take the fight to their territory and say, "Yes, you can teach storytelling and you can test it and measure it and it's an immensely valuable tool, for commerce (if you're so obsessed with it) as much as anything else."

Storytelling in its way can have just as much complexity as music or mathematics. That we don't really understand this craft - or that this is a craft - is partly because of the romantic myth of "inspiration" peddled by authors as much as anyone. It is taught (up to a point) in creative writing degrees - but it can be simplified enough to be taught to schoolchildren as well. Why, for instance, is We're Going on a Bear Hunt such a compelling story? And what has it got to do with stories like Macbeth? (And yes, it does have something in common - all stories do.)

This is a fascinating, fruitful subject - and to a large extent, quantifiable. We should incorporate it into the curriculum in a way that will satisfy both sides of the debate. In this way, there can be a happy ending to what has so far been a very sad story.
@timlottwriter This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information. Topics

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Ditch the grammar and teach children storytelling instead

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A report in the Times has quoted a secondary school teacher who complained that their year 7 intake no longer knew how to tell a story. "They knew what a fronted adverbial was, and how to spot an internal clause, and even what a preposition was - but when I set them a task to write a story, they broke down and cried," reported the teacher.

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BBC documentary that tracks children learning to read in a year

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Audit could also include other minority and oppressed groups

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The story I always requested at bedtime as a child was Princess Smartypants (2005) by Babette Cole, a picture book about a princess who doesn't want to get married. She's more interested in adventure than boys, and ends up turning the prince her parents force upon her into a toad, flipping the traditional princess tale on its head. The story is a disciple of Robert Munsch's Paper Bag Princess (1980), in which a princess saves her prince from a dragon using her wits and then dumps the prince when he's ungrateful for the rescue. Gender-flipped stories and stereotype-busting characters abound in children's books in recent history, but an analysis of the gender makeup of children's books for the past years reveals a trend toward the old system order.

There are sizable gender gaps in today's children's books, both in the texts themselves and in the authorship. A report by the Australian Broadcasting Commission on the 100 top-selling kid's picture books in Australia from 2017 found that male characters outnumbered female characters three to two, and the gap was even higher among animal characters. Further, male characters were given more dominant roles than female characters, speaking more than their female counterparts. There were five times as many books with only male characters as with solely female characters; characters with no gender at all were more likely to be featured than female characters. The authors were almost twice as likely to be male than female.

The gender disparities in children's books don't make good business sense, especially when you note that the audience tends toward female readers. Research show that girls enjoy reading for pleasure more than boys; a 2009 study from the UK Department of Education found that a much higher portion (58 percent) of girls enjoy reading for pleasure than boys (43 percent).Even though girls are the largest audience for kids' books, the industry produces an outsized number of tales about male characters, inadvertently teaching young girls that male is the default and that stories about boys will always be more important than those about girls.

So how does the U.S. stack up? To find out, I did an analysis of critics' picks and consumer habits in American children's lit and found a similar trend, breaking out the top-selling and most recommended books by the gender of the author and key protagonist.

Gender Equity In The Critics' List

First, let's look at the children's canon. I used Time's list of the 100 Best Children's Books Of All Time, which consistedonly of children's picture books, to see if critics would be any more inclusive of female stories and writers.

Sixty-eight percent of the books on the list featured a male protagonist, while only 19 percent starred a female (13 percent focused on both a male and female protagonist or the gender or the protagonist was not identified). In simple terms, not even a quarter of the "best children's books of all time" are about a female character, let alone a non-binary character. The number of female authors was slightly higher, at 35 percent, for a 16 percentage-point discrepancy between the number of female authors and the number of female protagonists.

This matters. If these stories are considered the best kid's books ever, people are going to keep reading them to their kids, reinforcing the notion that narratives about boys are the norm to a whole new generation.

The centering of male characters is common across genres, as any good English major will tell you. The English canon is full of stories written by and about DWM's: "Dead White Men." As The Guardian points out, there isn't anything inherently wrong with stories about or by DWM's, but it is problematic that tales about and by them are the only stories being told, as it leaves out anyone who isn't a white man, which is a large portion of the world's population. Theongoing celebrationof Maurice Sendak, Dr. Seuss, P.D. Eastman, and Jack Ezra, among others, as the greats in children's literature means that today's kids will inherit a canon that is similarly skewed towards male authors and characters.

The Time piece calls attention to the problematic history of children's books in the U.S., but how do current market trends fare? Are consumers more savvy when it comes to gender diversity?

Gender Equity In Bestsellers

To get a sense for how a more contemporary look at the books our kids consume stack up, I investigated the Amazon Children's Bestsellers List, a real time list that's updated every hour, and the results (skewed slightly toward new releases and recent classics in both the children's and YA categories), along with the greatest hits, replicated the trend.

When I looked at the list, only 18 percent of the bestsellers featured a female protagonist, which was almost more disappointing because of the increase in the number of female authors on the list: 50 percent of the bestselling authors were women, but the gender makeup of the protagonists in the books themselves was nowhere near equitable with that of the male characters.

Take the top four books for example: The Wonky Donkey (2009) by Craig Smith, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown (2018) by Jeff Kinney, Room on the Broom (2001) by Julia Donaldson, and Duck on a Disco Ball (A Duck in the Fridge Book) (2018) by Jeff Mack. Of the top four, three were written by men about male characters, and all three of those authors all but exclusively write male protagonists. Kinney's wildly successful Wimpy Kid series focuses exclusively on boys, as does Smith's Wonkey books. A few of Mack's children's books have characters with no explicit genders, but those that do contain exclusively male characters.

Donaldson, on the other hand, has a more inclusive (and expansive) history. In her more than 50 books, Donaldson doesn't lean one way or the other on gender, writing about male and female characters with ease. Room on the Broom is about a female witch, while a male monster stars in The Gruffalo(2010); (2005) tells the story of a girl who lost her favorite accessory, while The Smartest Giant In Town (2002) introduces readers to a male giant trying to fit in. The list goes on, and Donaldson's commitment to writing tales that boys and girls can identify with becomes only more apparent.Female writers aren't inherently better at creating equitable gender landscapes in their books, though we don't always give them credit when they are - Margaret Wise Brown didn't specify that the bunny be male in her beloved Goodnight Moon(1947), but the character is still widely assumed to be male, with descriptions of the book using he/him pronouns, for no reason other than a pair of blue pajamas.

Takeaway 1: Non-Human Characters Are More Often Male

Most of the books on the list tell wonderful and inspiring stories, but don't include girls the same way they do boys. The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) by Drew Daywalt sends a strong message of racial diversity to readers through a clever narrative in which the rainbow-colored crayons are talking to the little boy coloring with them, but girls are only mentioned in the story in reference tothe color pink as a "girl's," and are applauded for having the ability to color inside the lines. As the Washington Post points out in a critique of the tendency to assign male genders to objects and anthropomorphized animals, in doing sothe author subtly reinforces the message that girls should follow typical gender norms by not offering any alternatives for female expressions of creativity in the text, despite his intention of being inclusive.

Another example is Mo Willems, who's known for his anthropomorphic narratives about an elephant named Gerald and a pig named Piggie Biggie. Willem's stories make reading fun and offer an endless number of surprises, but he deals almost exclusively in male characters, aside from Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale (2004). The same can be said for A.A. Milne's beloved Winnie the Pooh books (first published 1926). The tales of the Hundred Acre Wood are filled with positive messages about friendship and being yourself, but of the nine main characters in the series, only one is female, Kanga. What's more, she's depicted solely as a traditional mother figure and is relegated to the domestic sphere for much of the series. Both of these authors have the opportunity to include female animal characters in dynamic and engaging ways, but choose not to.

Female Protagonists Tend To Be Multifaceted And Strong

The lists did show some positive changes in the industry. Although the number of books about female characters was small on the Time list, the stories about girls were progressive. The opening page of (2000), Ian Falconer's picture book about a little pig, states, "This is Olivia./ She is good at lots of things," immediately sending the message that girls have talents, and they are allowed to be aware of them. The entire book becomes a catalogue of Olivia's skills and interests, repeatedly showing a positive image of a female character expressing herself.

Similarly, (1939) by Ludwig Bemelmans is beloved because its star is a little girl who isn't afraid of anything, subverting the stereotype of the damsel in distress by giving girls an alternative model for how to be.

There are also male illustrators creating positive and strong depictions of female characters, like William Steig who wrote and illustrated Brave Irene(1986). Steig shows Irene trudging through the snow to deliver a package for her sick mother, focusing on her actions and selflessness rather than her appearance. Similarly, Peter H. Reynolds shows Vashti, a budding artist, exploring her creative talent in (2003). Both of these texts highlight a female protagonists' abilities over their looks, taking them out of the context of the male gaze and handing them back the control over their own stories.

Male Protagonists Are Pushing Ideas About Masculinity

Another positive development in the genre is stories about male protagonists that don't rely on traditional depictions of masculinity, giving men room to have feelings and express them. Mother Bruce (2015) by Ryan T. Higgins tells the story of a bear who becomes an unlikely maternal figure for a group of goslings, providing a positive model of a male parent. Also of note is Leslie Newman's breakdown of gender norms in Sparkle Boy (2017), in which the protagonist likes wearing a sparkly tutu as much as he enjoys playing with trucks. Newman explains that someone's preference on toys, clothes, or any other thing doesn't have to be determined by their gender in a way kids can understand. Tough Guys Have Feelings Too (2015) by Keith Negley is similarly oriented, as it shows male characters expressing a multitude of feelings in different scenarios, most notably normalizing men who cry. And of course this year, Julián Is A Mermaid(2018) offered children space to explore their identities.

Each of these texts addresses a toxic aspect of masculinity head on and gives more space for expression to the next generation of men. Some classic picture books have given male characters alternate options for masculinity, though not in as direct of a fashion as these modern iterations. There's an argument to be made that Harold and The Purple Crayon (1955) by Crockett Johnson is progressive, as the plot of the story is about a little boy exploring his love of art, a skill set often deemed feminine. But at the same time, Johnson reinforces the notion of males as the creators of the universe with his tale; Harold conjures a new world with a flick of his wrist, and it's worth noting that no female characters exist in his fantasy.

The same can be said of Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are (1963); the main character Max escapes a domestic environment where his mother sends him to his bedroom as punishment, and he enters into a wild world of his making where he has total control and there are no girls. Both stories show the male dream to be a land devoid of females.

The modern takes on masculinity in kid lit are encouraging, but again, the treatment of stories like Johnson's and Sendak's as top tier reinforces women's place as secondary for another generation of readers.

YA Is Leading The Way For Representation

Almost every book about a teenager on the Amazon list was written by a female author about a female character, which, again, included YA - and reflects the impact of recent campaigns intended to diversify YA, like #pitchwars, a mentorship program for new authors, and #keepYAweird, an effort by YA author Andrew Smith to encourage experimentation and diversity in YA. Plus, the protagonists in these books were active agents in their lives, and finding a boyfriend wasn't their main concern. In The Hunger Games(first published 2008) by Suzanne Collins, Katniss Everdeen fights to protect her sister and becomes the leader of a rebellion against an unjust government, while the boys around her play the role of sidekick that female characters are so often forced into. Katniss is a a character copy-pasted over into the series' (first published 2011) Tris, with her origins in Far From the Madding Crowd (1874)(starring her namesake Bathsheba Everdene), Little Women's (1869) Jo March, and the headstrong Lizzie Bennet.

Laurie Halse Anderson pioneered a different kind of strong female character in her novel (1999), echoed in Starr Carter of Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give (2017). These bestsellers aren't currently on the list, but each was wildly successful upon its release and all have been made into equally popular films.

Likewise, Lara Jean Covey, the protagonist of To All The Boys I've Loved Before series (first published 2014) by Jenny Han (two out of the three books are on the Amazon list right now after the success of the Netflix film adaptation), flips the narrative of a girl pining away for a boy,as we see her fall in love in a way that doesn't rely on the superficial tropes of love that are common in teenage depictions of romance, like love at first sight or "forever feelings," as Vivian Parkin DeRosa notes in the Huffington Post; rather, Lara Jean's relationship proves to be based on friendship, mutual respect, and trust. Plus, Han gives Lara Jean's love interest, Peter Kavinsky, room to be emotional too, pushing against messages of toxic masculinity that say boys aren't supposed to have feelings. It's encouraging that the most popular young adult books today are about about strong female characters to whom the strong girls reading them can relate, especially because it's more likely girls are picking these books themselves since they are for an older audience.

Female Empowerment Extends Into Non-Fiction

Two of the books on the Amazon list were from American Girl's The Care and Keeping Of You series (first published 1998), books that are designed to help girls understand puberty and normalize the changes that happen to their bodies. There are two versions of the book, one for girls 8 and up and another for girls 10 and up, and they're both on the Amazon list. The popularity of these guides, which cover everything from armpit hair to periods, indicates that Americans are making strides to empower young girls to own their womanhood, rather than making them feel ashamed for their natural bodily functions like we did for so many years.

There has also been a recent trend towards picture books about historical female figures, many of which are like little anthologies of trailblazing women throughout history, while others are illustrated biographies or autobiographies like Sonia Sotomayor's Turning Pages: My Life Story(2018). Books in this vein have become more popular since the 2016 election, and it doesn't seem like the trend is going to go away any time soon, with recent additions from Senator Kristen Gillibrand (Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women The Right To Vote, 2018) and Erica Armstrong Dunbar and Kathleen Van Cleve (Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge, (2019), a story about a slave who ran away from George Washington, coming out soon).

Children's literature isn't where it needs to be yet in terms of gender diversity, but there are reasons to be hopeful. Female readers choose stories about empowered girl when they are given the chance to choose, so if we provide young girls, and boys and non-binary kids for that matter, with more stories about gender-diverse characters, we'll eventually see a more equal gender distribution in bestseller lists.

With any luck, heroes like Princess Smartypants won't be so rare.
Related post: The Children's Books That Defined 2018

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The Gender Gap In Children's Books Is The Real Monster In The Room

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Presented in partnership with The Longest Shortest Time podcast. The story I always requested at bedtime as a child was Princess Smartypants (2005) by Babette Cole, a picture book about a princess who doesn't want to get married. She's more...

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Analysis of findings of book audit for gender

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Analysis of findings of book audit for gender

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Audit for library or programme

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Posted August 22, 2018 05:12:42

What do you see when you really look at the books on your kids' bookshelf?

We read Nielsen BookScan's 100 top-selling kids' picture books of last year, keeping track of gender: who spoke, who was the lead character, what type of character were they?

The results suggest - at least when it comes to the books that are being bought in large numbers - this crucial cultural starting point for many kids is still male-dominated.

Males outnumbered females

Across the 100 titles, there were three male characters for every two females, and males outnumbered females in 58 of the books.

And when it came to speaking parts, 38 per cent were female.

When a character was given an important role in the story and a speaking part, the difference was more pronounced: 65 per cent were male compared to 35 per cent female.

Newer books were actually more likely than older books to feature more male characters than female.

Books were nearly three times as likely to feature more males than females, compared to the reverse.

No lead character more likely than a female lead

Twenty-four books had no lead character and two had a lead character with no gender, while 23 had a female lead.

Fifty-one books had a male lead - that's 69 per cent of books with a lead, or more than twice the number of female leads.

The numbers were about the same, whether the characters were human or non-human.

Fiona Stager, co-owner of Brisbane children's bookstore Where the Wild Things Are, says the findings were horrifying and a bit surprising.

"I really didn't think it was that skewed towards male characters," she said.

"Unfortunately that gender bias starts at birth.

"The number of people who come to buy a book for a baby, and they will tell you that it's a boy, and they'll particularly want the stereotype of what boys are interested in. And that's cars and trucks."

One train of thought in the publishing industry, according to bestselling Australian author Jackie French, is that boys prefer to read books with male protagonists, while girls will read books with either a male or female protagonist.

"I think there is some truth to that, but cultural changes generally make this less the case than it was," she said.

"With really gripping books, it doesn't matter at all."

Ms Stager said people need to be aware of their own unconscious bias about what kids are interested in.

"All the research says girls will read books with male protagonists but we've got it in our heads that boys won't (read books about girls)," she said.

"And I know they will, and I know they do."

The UK list of bestsellers was analysed by journalist Donna Ferguson for The Observer earlier this year, and showed a more balanced situation than in Australia.

Just over half the leads were male, compared to more than two-thirds in Australia.

More than twice as many books written by men

Some books had no author listed, such as the six Peppa Pig books, and three had authors of both gender.

Of the remaining books, 55 had a male author or authors and 27 had a female author or authors.

Ms Stager said prejudice means, even these days, many female authors continue to use their initials.

"The famous case is JK Rowling but there is still a whole lot who will mask the gender because they're afraid of the bias," she said.

Aaron Blabey had 10 books on the list - the most of any author.

He said gender isn't something he thinks about in any calculated way, but his characters tend to have a 50/50 split overall.

"I will go out of my way to find ways to include kickass female characters. It just makes the work so much more fun," he said.

The female author with the most books in the top 100 was Mem Fox, with six - including her latest book I'm Australian Too, which was out-sold by older favourites like Possum Magic and Where is the Green Sheep?

The gender split of the Australian list was the reverse of the UK situation.

Ferguson found 31 books on the UK list had a male author, compared to 45 female.

Five times as many books with all male characters

When you think of your favourite kids' book, are there any female characters in it at all?

For kids reading the top-selling books of last year, there was a decent chance they saw books where every gendered character was male. But the reverse was unlikely.

Thirty-one books had all-male characters, compared to six that had all-female characters.

Newer favourites and old classics were both as likely to not include females.

Half of the books featuring 100 per cent male characters were published in the past five years, including the smash hit Pig the Pug series, and half were published before then, such as the hugely popular Guess How Much I Love You and older favourites like The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

And there is a strong relationship between the author gender and the make-up of the characters.

Why does it matter if the author is a man or a woman? Most younger kids might not even know who wrote their favourite book.

One reason - male authors were much more likely to leave out female characters altogether.

Of the 55 books with male authors, almost half had all male characters. When we look at the 27 books by female authors, the all-male figure is three. That's 43 per cent compared to 11 per cent.

No gendered characters more likely than all female characters

It's a small difference - seven to six - but the number of books with 100 per cent female characters was lower than the number of books with no gendered characters at all.

Australian author and broadcaster Andrew Daddo, whose two top 100 books had female leads, was the only male author on the list to write a book with a female human lead.

His book First Day is also one of only six on the list to include 100 per cent female characters.

Daddo says he wouldn't call himself a feminist, but he does think about the gender of the characters.

In the case of First Day, his wife was the one who suggested the main character should be a girl.

His next book, When I Grow Up, features children telling their class what their future careers will be, including a girl who wants to be an astronaut. In this book, he was more deliberate about gender.

"Why can't a girl be those things?" he said.

The bad guys are just that: guys

When we looked at the villains in the books, it was clear male baddies were preferred.

There weren't many villains in the top 100 list at all - only 10 in total. Nine of them were male.

A fox, a dragon, a cat, a dingo, several monsters and a Gruffalo were all male, while the sole female villain was a "terrible witch" with a pointy black hat and green face.

These findings are similar to The Observer's UK research, which found the only female villain in that list was a duck who stole Peppa Pig's golden boots.

Mums nearly twice as likely as dads to appear on their own

When only one parent was portrayed, it was nearly twice as likely to be a mum as a dad on his own (nine versus five).

But single parents of either gender were far less common than pairs of parents - there were 19 books featuring two parents.

In the UK study, dads were also far less likely to be present without a mum, compared to a mum on her own (four dads vs 18 mums).

Unlike in Australia, mums were more likely in the UK list to be featured on their own than as part of a parenting couple (18 single mums vs 16 pairs of parents).

Females make up half the animal kingdom, but not in picture books

Only one third of the characters given a gender were human, meaning the top 100 books featured more than 300 male or female non-human characters.

The gender imbalance was slightly more pronounced than with human characters: 64 per cent of gendered animals and other non-human characters were male, compared to 36 per cent female.

That means when crayons, bodily functions and imaginary creatures such as monsters were given a gender, it was likely to be male.

When it came to animals, larger or predatory ones - bears, foxes, monsters - were more likely to be male, and smaller or less aggressive creatures more likely to be female: chickens, rabbits, sheep.

These findings are similar to a 2011 Florida University study of 6,000 children's picture books of the 20th Century.

The authors wrote that animal characters could be seen as powerful, and potentially overlooked, conduits for gendered messages.

"The persistent pattern of disparity among animal characters may reveal a subtle kind of symbolic annihilation of women disguised through animal imagery."

According to that study, even when an animal was not given a gender, mothers tended to refer to it by male pronouns.

"The tendency of readers to interpret even gender-neutral animal characters as male exaggerates the pattern of female underrepresentation. The authors note that mothers frequently label gender-neutral animal characters as male when reading with their children, and that children assign gender to gender-neutral animal characters."

Newer books not necessarily more balanced

This analysis comes with a reminder that we are looking at the top-selling books of 2017, not kids' favourite books and certainly not the only books that are available.

Older and newer books were equally as likely to include all male characters, and equally as likely to exclude them altogether.

Ms Stager said gender bias begins at birth and appears to be getting more pronounced, not less.

"The number of times we try to offer a non-gendered solution and people will resist it at the counter. It's horrifying, it's heartbreaking. And I think it's got worse as well," she said.

"I think we all have to take responsibility for it, and that includes booksellers, publishers, book reps, it includes book buyers."

One possible reason for a persisting gender imbalance is a theory in the industry that reluctant readers, who are mostly male, will be encouraged back to reading by male authors and by default male protagonists.

The ABC contacted five top-selling publishing groups for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.

Jackie French, whose Diary of a Wombat is still a bestseller 16 years after publication, said the theory about reluctant readers was a "dangerous myth".

"Reluctant boys want to read different books, serious books, not short funny books," she said.

Ms Stager agrees, calling the reluctant readers theory "just a lazy cop-out".

"I think that's lazy on all our parts and I feel responsible for it, I'm not putting the blame on other people.

"And I still firmly believe that if you write a great, gripping story, it will be read and loved by any reader."

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A look at the top 100 kids' books suggests kids' bookshelves are on a lean

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Posted August 22, 2018 05:12:42 What do you see when you really look at the books on your kids' bookshelf? We read Nielsen BookScan's 100 top-selling kids' picture books of last year, keeping track of gender: who spoke, who was the lead character, what type of character were they?

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Audit for a library

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Updated August 22, 2018 10:25:33

What do you see when you really look at the books on your kids' shelf?

Take a scroll through Australia's 100 top-selling kids' picture books of last year, as seen through the eyes of a bear on a mission.

The Elephant in the Room will be your helpful guide.

Once upon a time there was a bear.

Bear had a story. She was looking for someone to listen to it and help her tell it.

Her friend Mrs Chicken would love to help, but thinks Bear would be better off with someone a bit wiser.

"If you want anyone to read it, try Mr Owl." she said.
Elephant says: In the top 100 picture books of last year, more than twice as many books had a male author, compared to those with a female author.
"But he might want to make a few... tweaks..."
Elephant says: Male authors were far more likely to produce a book with all male characters. Almost half of the books by men had all male characters, compared to one in 10 books by women.
Everyone knows Mr Owl tells the best stories. He looks at Bear with a frown.

"What makes you think anyone would want to hear your story?"
Elephant says: Of the books that did have a lead character, more than two-thirds (69 per cent) were male. Kids' books were more likely to have no lead than a female lead.
Bear goes to Mr Pig, who is happy to give her advice.

"If you really want anyone to read your story, you should tell them you're a dog."
Elephant says: More than 10 per cent of the books featured a dog lead character. Dog characters were seven times more likely to be male than female.
"Or maybe a dog... called 'Pig'!"
Elephant says: Six books from the bestsellers' list were from the Pig the Pug series by Aaron Blabey. Blabey's books accounted for 10 per cent of all the books on the list.
Bear goes to see Mrs Bunny who is too tired to take on another job but knows a thing or two about how the world works.

"Try making yourself smaller and fluffier," she tells Bear.
Elephant says: Non-human female characters were more likely to be chickens or possums than lions or bears. There was one female bear on the list, compared to six male bears.
Bear is feeling a bit down.

"I can't turn myself into a dog or a chicken!"

She goes to see Mr Monkey, who'd love to help but there's too much monkey business to be done.

"Have you ever considered telling a story about farts?"
Elephant says: Eight per cent of books on the list were about bodily functions.
"Fart stories are just a lot of hot air. What's wrong with a story about me?" asks Bear.

Bear has one last shot. Surely Mr Fox will want to tell her story.

"If you must make it about you, let's not tell anyone you're a girl," Mr Fox tells Bear.
Elephant says: There were three male characters for every two female characters in the top 100 books.
Bear is starting to get annoyed.

"We could make the story about you," says Mr Fox, "as long as you don't mind doing a lot of listening."
Elephant says: Characters with speaking parts were also much more likely to be male than female (62 per cent male).
"And you'd have to have a tough male sidekick to help you," says Mr Fox.
Elephant says: Only six books had 100 per cent female characters, while 31 books had 100 per cent male characters. Books were more likely to have no gendered characters than all female characters.
Bear has had enough! She lets out a giant ROAARR!

"I can't be a dog, a chicken, a possum, a fart, or a boy bear!"

At that moment Bear remembered her favourite book.
"We've got to make noises in great amounts! "So open your voice lad lass! For every voice counts!"
- Dr Seuss, Horton Hears a Who

There was only one thing for it.

"Once upon a time, there was a bear..."

As a female protagonist, Bear is unusual in the top-selling kids' picture books of last year. As a female protagonist who is also a large predatory animal, she's alone.
The roadblocks she faces when she tries to tell her story reflect our findings from a detailed look at Nielsen BookScan's top 100.
We've put together a list of the main findings if you'd like to know more.

Credits

Story and research: Cristen Tilley

Illustrations and development: Nathan Hoad

Design: Ben Spraggon

Editor: Matt Liddy

Special thanks to Donna Ferguson at The Observer for her generosity and advice.
Topics: books-literature, children---preschoolers, children, children---toddlers, women, australia

First posted August 22, 2018 05:15:02

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Bear wants to tell a story. But do you want to read it?

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Updated August 22, 2018 10:25:33 What do you see when you really look at the books on your kids' shelf? Take a scroll through Australia's 100 top-selling kids' picture books of last year, as seen through the eyes of a bear on a mission. The Elephant in the Room will be your helpful guide.

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Blog with suggestions for PB that challenge status quo

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For a short 24 pages, I sure have no clue how most picture books will end. Truly, if you thought Ulysses was esoteric, let me introduce you Secret Pizza Party, in which a raccoon goes on a dangerous odyssey to score pizza and bring it home to his treehouse. The story makes no sense, and also complete sense: the raccoon's love of pizza is the animating force, start to finish; it is Chekhov's gun on the first spread, and it is the denouement in the last. Picture books don't play by the same rules as other fiction - Jon Klassen explained to Romper that you really only need a motor to get you from one page to the next - which means there is a lot of innovation in any given year. Funny, profound, and weirdly calming, the best picture books of 2018 prove that no one is better at genre-bending than children's books creators.

Outside the cocoon of childhood, 2018 was at times a nightmare, but these books show an interest in empathy, finding beauty in the every day, female empowerment that doesn't come with pre-printed slogans, and touching on the existential (as soon as your kid develops theory of self, they are ready). In short, they were one of the best things about this year. Here are some of the highlights, with a taste of the broader trend.

The Book That Isn't Worried About Labels

The conversation around gender norms and how to raise a boy kicked up a notch this year as #MeToo swept through the grown world, and children's books continued to engage with questions of identity in a playful, sensitive way. Julián Is A Mermaid (Candlewick) by Julia Love not only capitalized on those of us ordering mermaid tail blankets off Amazon, but offered the confident story of Julián, whose world consists of his abuela and seemingly mermaids - grown women - all around him. Viewed through his eyes, the world is a soft place full of beauty and female energy - along with him, the reader gravitates toward a feminine style of dress, but Love never puts a label on that choice.

Honorable mention: How To Be A Lion (Doubleday Books for Young Readers) by Ed Vere, which gives us a stereotypically un-lion-y lion who is best friends with a duck, and encounters some bullies. Be who you are!

The Superhero Book That Busts The Princess Genre But Not In A Super-Obvious Way

The world offeminist children's book characters is crowded with princesses who hike, who rescue their own prince, and use their STEM skills to invent robot shoes, and I am glad for it, of course, but these efforts often feel heavy handed. Not so, Lucía The Luchadora And The Million Masks (POW! Books) by Cynthia Leonor Garza, and illustrated by Alyssa Bermudez, which focuses on the relationship between Lucía and her little sister Gemma, who wants nothing more than to be like her big sis.

In Lucía The Luchadora, the first book in the series, the main character finds out from her abuela that she comes from a line of superheroes - luchadores - but Garza doesn't get bogged down in supernatural feats or feminist slogans. Her newest book sees Lucía lose her precious lucha libre mask, and wrestle with how it feels to have a little sister who drives you bananas.

Notable mention: Jinx And The Doom Fight Crime (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books) by Lisa Manchev, illustrated by Samantha Cotterill, the story of a brother and sister who imagine they are superheroes having adventures in their home.

The Book That Feels Most Like ASMR

One of the buzzwords the past year, in which we found out Jake Gyllenhaal practices ASMR, was "empathy." There is a sense that we need to limit sensory input, and create space for kindness and calm. (If it's good enough for Jake Gyllenhaal...) There has been a spate of new children's lit that either aims to educate kids about the importance of empathy overtly, or embodies the kind of calm we want to instill in our children. None did it better than Molly Idle's (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), the mere cover of which sends me into a state of peak Alpha waves.

Pearl is given a tiny grain of sand to watch over by her mother, and sinks to the floor of the ocean with disappointment over the smallness of her task. But there, something begins to grow... and grow... and glow. It is the most soothing bedtime book I have ever come across, and my heart rate as I write this is at about 30 beats per minute.

Honorable mentions: The Dreamer by Il Sung Na (Chronicle Books), a softly drawn story about a pig who doesn't mind watching others fly about; (Roaring Brook Press) by Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Jen Hill, a favorite for its message; (Simon & Schuster) by Tomie dePaola, about seeking out space for introspection; The Snowy Nap (G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers) by Jan Brett, just the latest snuggly story in her large body of work; and (G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers) by Matt de la Peña, which is a beautifully humanist story of the ways love touches you from birth through life.

The Book For Little Kafkas

If My Year Of Rest And Relaxation blew up adult lit this year, the latest collaboration between Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen, (Candlewick), was the most meta offering yet in any genre.

Square does the same thing every day: he pushes blocks up a hill. That is until, one day. Circle floats by and mistakes one of the blocks for a sculptured self-portrait, then asks for a portrait of herself. Like all of us with imposter syndrome, Square worries that he is not up to the task, wonders why he would even try, seemingly flames out, and yet somehow sculpts something beguiling.

Many children's books have something for mom and dad in them, but the Shape trilogy ( Circle is out in 2019 and offers a rip-roaring existential cliffhanger) go worlds beyond their competition. The books are hilarious for kids, and will revisit you late at night in your dreams.
Related: Jon Klassen Is King Of Shifty Eyes
The Book That Is More Emotionally Mature Than You

In children's books, the author and illustrator are often teamed up and managed separately by the publisher, with little contact between the two. The collaboration of Vietnamese-Canadian Minh Le and Caldecott Medal-winner and Thai-American Dan Santat on Drawn Together (Disney-Hyperion) is a clear exception. The project was deeply meaningful for both the author and illustrator.

A boy is dropped off at his Thai grandfather's house for the day, and the two sit in a world devoid of words for a few pages, silently eating their ramen/hot dog, unable to converse due to a language barrier. But when the boy gets out his markers and starts to draw, the grandfather runs to fetch his ink and brushes. Together, they create a world that allows them to finally meet.

I don't want to bog us all down in sentimentality, but on an artistic and conceptual level it is incredibly executed (SO GORGEOUS), and in terms of story, it is one of the great pieces of art to address the severing of family history through immigration, and the schism between generations.

The Book That Showed You Don't Need To Overplay Your Moral Hand

While I agree that children's books are a great tool for teaching our kids, I gravitate toward books that often teach nothing at all, beyond "reading is a blast," or, say, We Don't Eat Our Classmates" (Disney-Hyperion).You know, helpful koans for every day life.

Ryan T. Higgins, of Mother Bruce fame, is back with another funny story that assumes your kid has a sophisticated sense of humor.

Honorable mention: Interrupting Chicken And The Elephant Of Surprise (Candlewick) by David Ezra Stein, about a chicken who can't let its dad finish a story without beating them to the punch. Solid fun.

The Book That Hypnotized Us

Print of Florette from Anna Walker's Big Cartel shop

Among devotees of kidlit, there is a tendency to call them "picture books" rather than "children's books" - after all, adults are the ones buying and consuming them. The artwork in many picture books is worthy of being pinned on the wall - and in fact Anna Walker, author of(Clarion Books), has a print of her cover available on her website.

Florette follows a girl who is sad to have moved away from her beloved home and garden to a city (it's Paris) where she stumbles on something almost as good. It is art you can lose yourself in (for a glimpse of her process go here).

Notable mention: Ocean Meets Sky (Simon & Schuster) by Terry Fan and Eric Fan, which, like so many books this year, focuses on a grandparent. Here, a boy's grandfather told his grandson to look for the place where ocean meets sky - the leaping off point for a ridiculously beautifully illustrated journey by the creators of The Night Gardener.
Related post: The Gender Gap In Children's Books Is The Real Monster In The Room

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The Picture Books That Defined 2018 & What They Say About Us

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Presented in partnership with The Longest Shortest Time podcast. For a short 24 pages, I sure have no clue how most picture books will end. Truly, if you thought Ulysses was esoteric, let me introduce you Secret Pizza Party, in which a raccoon goes...