Our Contact details: Letterbox Library, 71-73 Allen Road, Stoke Newington, London N16 8RY, UK.
Phone: 0207 503 4801 Fax: 0207 503 4800 Email: info@letterboxlibrary.com

Information for Teachers

Special Issue: Girls and Boys- Same Difference


"Letterbox has made such a difference to the look of so many school libraries and allowed so many more children to see themselves in the books they read. You find books that no one else finds and so reach children who are difficult to reach. The growth of Letterbox is a huge tribute to all who have worked there. Thanks for all you do and all good wishes for the next twenty five years". (Wendy Cooling, Bookstart founder and MBE for services to children's literature, July 2008).

As a subscriber to Letterbox Library, you may already know that we actually started out as an anti-sexist book club. Whilst we now pride ourselves on addressing inequalities across the board, we have also never lost our roots. Words such as 'feminist' and 'anti-sexist' are these days often seen as squeamishly old-fashioned, or indeed ugly, or, most often, irrelevant to our 'modern', supposedly gender-neutral world. And yet, it is remarkable how so many gender inequalities have still not changed or simply not changed enough.

In the field of education, if you mention the gender gap, then the assumption is you are referring to the underachievement of boys, compared to girls. And yet, whilst statistics do indeed show that girls have slowly but steadily overtaken boys overall in academic achievements, much of the existing research cautions against drawing any easy conclusions. For example:
116,000 girls and 153,000 boys did not gain 5+ A*-C GCSEs in 2006: "Tackling the scale of these numbers is arguably of greater priority…than the proportionate difference between boys and girls' attainment" The different subject choices made by boys and girls may have much "greater longer-term outcomes in terms of subsequent career choices than attainment differences". (Gender and Education, DFES, 2007)

Indeed, in terms of how girls and boys' educational qualifications translate into employment, a recent Women and Work Committee report (July 2009) has shown that, despite improvements, the workforce's gender pay gap has stubbornly persisted and has in fact widened since 2007. Yes, in our supposed 'post-feminist' world, women and men still do not have equal pay. The Committee has concluded that one of the government's priorities should be to break down gender stereotypes in schools and careers services.

We all share a common purpose in the education of our children- that every child should be able to reach their maximum potential. As you already know from your own professional work, tackling inequalities is fundamental to this task. Breaking down gender stereotypes is simply essential and crucially, it benefits both girls and boys. Girls do well academically but stereotypes of 'femininity' mean they frequently lack confidence and are also often steered into underpaid, low status professions. Meantime, boys do less well academically, partly due to a macho culture or stereotype of 'masculinity' which sees academic work and reading in particular, as somehow 'feminine'.

Back to the world of books! Do turn over for our selection of some of the strongest titles we have found for breaking down traditional ideas of gender. It has been a hard search. In these millennium years, where popular culture tells us boys and girls are now equal, at Letterbox Library we often feel swamped by children's books which have reverted to an oddly conservative view of the world. The glut of mass-market fairy and princess books would have our girls growing up forever primping, looking in a mirror and waiting for something to happen to them. Meantime, reluctant boy readers are being encouraged to read through books which celebrate all those stereotypical forms of 'masculinity' - violence, laddishness, sexism- which made boys suspicious of reading in the first place. And they say feminism is old-fashioned!

SMASHING GENDER BOOKS

From Pages 4-5

Man's/Woman's Work: early years must-haves for challenging gendered occupations. Man's Work (one of your favourites!), All Change Jobs/Party and Digger/Dumper. Through to KS1, see What Will I Be? and Choices, Choices…
Princess Antidotes: for savvy, wised-up princesses with attitude. Princess Grace, The Paper-Bag Princess, Princess Smartypants and Princess Pigsty.
Boys With Character: boys get to be emotionally intelligent and 3-dimensional! The wonderful Boy in a Dress, Weslandia, How To Heal A Broken Wing, Alfie's Angels and When The Bees Fly Home.
Women Who Changed The World:Amazons; Girls Are Best (also Sea Queens on p.30).
A Visual Treat:Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley- a simply beautiful book about a friendship between a rather special boy and rather special girl.

MORE BOOK HIGHLIGHTS

Traveller Representations: see First Time: Nursery (p.8), Death in a Nut (p.16) and Toffee & Pie (p.27).
Eastern European Narratives: apart from our dual language books in Polish, Czech and Albanian, see: Ever Clever Eva, King Popiel and the Mouse Army, Nail Soup -all on pages 16-17; Marek and Alice's Christmas (p.25); Roar, Bull, Roar/Falcon's Fury (p.31). >br> Disability Titles: 48 titles in this catalogue include disability representations- look out for the Blue "D". A special mention must go to First Time: Nursery on p.8 which effortless incorporates a wide range of disabilities.
Seasonal Delights: Finally, a Santa with dreadlocks in The Night Before Christmas (p.13)! See also Amadi's Snowman (p.13), Divali Rose (p.13), Joy To The World (p.16), Faith (p.18) and Marek and Alice's Christmas (p.25).
Great Lives/Historical Resources: our new section on page 30!
Barack Obama: No, we can't get enough. Spot the new Obama title by the brilliant children's publisher, Tamarind, on page 30

Another resource is our links page.