When my daughter was a baby and gender stereotypes started to feel suffocating, I decided to take a closer look at our home environment. I embarked on an “audit” of our home library of children’s books.
It was somewhat shocking. For every one lead female character, we had 8 male leads!
How was it possible that I, a self-proclaimed feminist mom had failed to curate a library with children’s books full of female characters who save the day?
Introducing Children’s Books with Adventurous Girls
That’s why I’m thrilled to bring you a review of The Lost Stories, the latest release in the Hot Air Balloon Adventure Story series! If you are always on the lookout for children’s books with adventurous girls, you will love this series.
Thank you to MDLM Books for sponsoring this post, so that I can spread the word to parents, family, and teachers like you about books that feature adventurous girls. We need more and more books like this! Of course, all opinions are my own, and I only recommend things that my family and I enjoy. (See disclosures for more info.)
Before we jump into the story, it’s important for all caregivers and educators to understand why a diverse bookshelf is so important for children’s development.
Children need to see themselves in books
The power of role models is critical for children. My daughter says she’d like to be a doctor someday, thanks to the power of Doc McStuffins, a modern character even more important for Black girls. If Doc were a boy, my daughter would not likely believe this was a career choice for her.
In 1990, Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop described children’s books not only as windows into new, exciting worlds, but also as mirrors.
When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books.” – Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop
Children need more mirrors to believe in their inherent worth and their potential accomplishments.
All kids need to see girls and diverse characters as heroes
Not only is it important for kids to see themselves mirrored in books, it’s critical for ALL children – including boys! – to see girls and diverse characters center a plot.
Young male readers, especially those who are white, and who will see their reflections mirrored back to them thousands of times, can learn through books that their own experience is not the only one. It helps them to consider, and hopefully value, the experience of someone who doesn’t look like them.
Adults tend to assume that boys, especially adolescent ones, won’t be interested in a story about a girl. And that may be true, but mostly because boys have been socialized to believe that girls are inferior and not worthy of the same air time.
The younger we start to fill our boys’ media with diverse protagonists, the more they will open their minds to the potential hero in everyone.
Book Review: The Hot Air Balloon Adventure Story Series
I met Annahita de la Mare of MDLM Books a few months ago during an Instagram book challenge coordinated by The Gender Equality Collective, and I’m so glad I did. My 4 year-old and I have been reading this hot air balloon adventure series ever since.
The latest of the series, The Lost Stories, was just released and there’s so much to love about this innovative story.
The Plot: Three cousins, Alice, Hannah, and Rosie find a notebook in their Grandmother’s old boxes, with hints about the “lost stories” of old fairy tales. Grandma tells her grandchildren that fairy tales used to have strong, clever women; not just damsels in distress. The three girls and their Grandmother navigate their trusty hot air balloon to the Swiss Alps to search for the buried stories. The crew faces several roadblocks and animal snafus on their way.
The Lost Stories is just as satisfying and adventurous as the first three books in the series: The Start of Something Big, The Perfect Rainy Day, and Footprints in the Snow.
Why you’ll love this series:
The books feature diverse protagonists
The Hot Air Balloon Adventure Story series features three girls as the leads, all with a variety of skin tones, implying several ethnicities. Some of the animals in the books are male and play a supporting role.
The girls have active adventures
Several current children’s books feature girls who appear “posed” – very aware that others are looking at them. Often, the author and illustrator probably don’t even realize that they’ve unconsciously contributed a hint of objectification or voyeurism. See Book Review of Princesses Wear Pants.
As the parent of a girl, I consciously avoid books that cast appearance as an important element of girls’ lives. MDLM Books’ series skillfully depicts girls in a way that draws a reader’s attention to their activities; NOT to their appearance or clothes.
Hannah, Alice, and Rosie instead use their bodies in an active way, to solve problems. They run, stand on each other’s shoulders, navigate the hot air balloon, rock climb, and snowboard.
The characters solve problems together
Every parent wants to instill in their child an ethos of team work and problem solving; values that arise frequently in this series.
Occasionally, one girl expresses hesitation and needs encouragement from her cousins. When they encounter challenges, like a torn balloon, a bridge obstruction, or a gap in the rocks, they support each other and often create solutions together.
No gender stereotypes here
Even among the books I love the most, there’s almost always one moment I hesitate and think “that could have been done better.” In the Hot Air Balloon Adventure Story series, that has never happened!
As discussed, the books do not use gender stereotypes, especially in the appearance or personalities of the girls. We rarely see the girls wear pink or purple. Of course, there is nothing wrong with these colors, but it’s so rare that audiences ingest visuals of girls without pink somewhere. And thanks to color-coding, we know that pink and purple are not only used to draw girls in, but they also operate as a “Keep Out” sign for boys.
The illustrations and cover art by Jennifer Kirkham feature a variety of bright, colorful images that would not deter boys in our current culture.
Age diversity
The spunky grandmother is the inspiration behind many of their adventures. She has clearly lived an exciting life, and isn’t ready to hang up her backpack, hiking boots, or hot air balloon.
My book audit found that when females ARE featured in a children’s book, they are much more likely to be a mother. The characters in our books were 5.7% fathers and a whopping 30% mothers.
The grandmother in this story is wildly different from the mothers in most children’s books, though. Her main goal is not to provide caregiving or emotional support; it’s to provoke and inspire curiosity and wild adventures! (A welcome respite from traditional depictions of grandmothers.)
They treat children like humans
This might sound weird, but some children’s media seem almost condescending to babies and children. Sometimes you wonder, does this author/creator even know any children?
But The Lost Stories and the entire series from MDLM Books treats children like real people. The children and grandmother have agency and authority over their decisions – a true victory for feminist parenting and gender equity.
Plus, the lack of rhyming is sometimes refreshing, even for young kids. Vocabulary words like “barreled” and “deluge” keep the narrative interesting without feeling pretentious, and will engage even older children. For these reasons, I recommend the series for ages 3-8.
I heartily recommend The Lost Stories and the entire Hot Air Balloon Adventure Story series to any parent, family member, or teacher to infuse more diverse role models and adventurous girls into your child’s library!
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Related Posts:
7 Ways to Parent without Stereotypes: Free E-Book
7 Ways Grandparents Can Challenge Gender Norms
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So important to show all races and genders in books. The world is so much bigger than many authors picture in they’re stories. My son is Mexican American and I will have Spanish English books for him as well!
I love these so much! These are exactly the type of books I want my daughter to read as she gets older
What amazing adventurous books I am looking forward to read them with my kids.
My daughter loves to read, I’m sure she’d love these!
That’s very interesting that you had so many books with male leads! I only have boys so that’s what most of our books are but this opened my eyes to have more books with both male and female main characters. These look super cute. I’m at a lost for christmas gifts for my four nieces so these may be the perfect gift!
This is really great for little ones!