astolat

I am happy but wiped out after yesterday and today so you guys are getting a super-short but I hope valuable post (well, for the other toddler moms on my flist), inspired by conversation from dinner last night:

If you would like books for small children that conscientiously avoid stereotypical gender roles, feature diverse and complex families, and also take those children through modern everyday tasks, I *highly highly* recommend The Helping Hands series from Child's Play books -- that doesn't bring up all of them, but if you look in the "people also bought..." links of one of the books, you'll see more.

I also recommend just doing an advanced search for "child's play" as the publisher -- I literally have not been sorry for any book they publish that I have ordered. Their version of Ten In The Bed with a dial in it is brilliant, my daughter reads it over and over. :)

I would also be incredibly grateful for any recommendations of books for 2-6 year olds with girl protagonists, and especially girl protagonists who get to have real agency and adventures.

(Count yourself lucky if you have not heard me rant in person about the book Maggie B., described as "A little girl's wish to sail for a day on a boat named for her with someone nice for company comes true." -- sounds awesome, right? Seafaring adventure with a girl protagonist! Ha ha HA! No, you see, the "nice company" is her baby brother, and her "adventure" consists of: cleaning the boat, cooking all the meals, entertaining the baby, bathing the baby, feeding the baby, teaching the baby, putting the baby to bed. And this girl is like, barely bigger than the baby. It's twenty-plus years old, but OMG. I was not happy.)