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Re: Boys and bios
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From: Crystal Brunelle <brucr_at_onalaskaschools.com>
Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 10:44:03 -0500
Hi. I notice that there are more biographies about women being produced now, but that we have historically seen an imbalance. I have been acquiring biographies about women over the few years I have been in my library, but still noticed quite an imbalance in my collection. I finally went to the shelf to actually count. I chose three shelves in the center of the section and started counting. Out of almost 250 books only 1/4 of them were about women. I was quite dismayed. I had known that I didn't have as many, but didn't realize the difference was that huge. Since I had one more order to place before the end of the year I started looking for biographies about women. They do exist, but simply not in the numbers that are found for men. I actually had a hard time finding current biographies beyond pop & movie stars that we didn't already own. I bought some pop culture biographies too though.
I also began a closer look at my biography collection and found an older book on my shelves (The Rourke Guide to State Symbols - Important & Famous People pub 2002) that had a person listed for every state in the U.S. with only 7 females. *sigh* Great example though when talking to my students about why we have Women's History Month.
There have been some amazing picture book biographies lately including some that Carrie Gelson highlighted here http://thereisabookforthat.com/2014/02/19/the-wonder-of-women-ten-nonfiction-picture-book-biographies/ A few more I would add are Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker, Buffalo Bird Girl and the longer book about Temple Grandin by Sy Montgomery.
Crystal Brunelle
On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 10:37 PM, Edith Campbell <crazyquilts_at_hotmail.com> wrote:
> Has anyone else ever noticed how few biographies of women in children's
> and YA lit as compared to those of men? Would girls read them more if there
> were more to which they could relate?
>
> Edith Campbell
> Indiana State University
> Education Librarian
> Sent from my iPhone
Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 10:44:03 -0500
Hi. I notice that there are more biographies about women being produced now, but that we have historically seen an imbalance. I have been acquiring biographies about women over the few years I have been in my library, but still noticed quite an imbalance in my collection. I finally went to the shelf to actually count. I chose three shelves in the center of the section and started counting. Out of almost 250 books only 1/4 of them were about women. I was quite dismayed. I had known that I didn't have as many, but didn't realize the difference was that huge. Since I had one more order to place before the end of the year I started looking for biographies about women. They do exist, but simply not in the numbers that are found for men. I actually had a hard time finding current biographies beyond pop & movie stars that we didn't already own. I bought some pop culture biographies too though.
I also began a closer look at my biography collection and found an older book on my shelves (The Rourke Guide to State Symbols - Important & Famous People pub 2002) that had a person listed for every state in the U.S. with only 7 females. *sigh* Great example though when talking to my students about why we have Women's History Month.
There have been some amazing picture book biographies lately including some that Carrie Gelson highlighted here http://thereisabookforthat.com/2014/02/19/the-wonder-of-women-ten-nonfiction-picture-book-biographies/ A few more I would add are Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker, Buffalo Bird Girl and the longer book about Temple Grandin by Sy Montgomery.
Crystal Brunelle
On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 10:37 PM, Edith Campbell <crazyquilts_at_hotmail.com> wrote:
> Has anyone else ever noticed how few biographies of women in children's
> and YA lit as compared to those of men? Would girls read them more if there
> were more to which they could relate?
>
> Edith Campbell
> Indiana State University
> Education Librarian
> Sent from my iPhone
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