Seeking Empowering Books/DVDs for Girls Age 3 - Page 2

[BaBaBa]

Madeleine?

[eko_mom]

Thanks for your suggestions about the Miyazaki movies. They look interesting, but not for my 3.y.o. I think the themes of separation from the family, hospitalization of the mother are too scary. I think I'll wait a couple years--they otherwise sounded good.

We tried a couple Bob the Builder and my dd loved it. Wendy is second banana, though, but at least there is a competent female. We watched Otis and Milo, and my dd liked it enough, but was too troubled for the safety of the animals. Rightly so, I've read that several cats were drowned in the filming of the movie. Not sure if that's true.

We are ordering Magic Schoolbus and Wonderpets from Netflix, so I'm hopeful about that. Can't find Families of the World or National Geographic Kids on Netflix. Will check our libraries. We have BBC Planet Earth and watch it occasionally. Its good, but then there's the killing--which up until recently has been problematic.

I am beside myself that there is hardly anything in video media for a young girl to watch that is non-sexist. Amazing. Keep the suggestions coming. Seems like we could put together a list for ongoing reviews for a sticky in this forum sometime.

[rainbringer]

I'm always on the lookout for good movies where the girl doesn't get married - they're hard to find.
Some older ones that are good -
Mary Poppins
Wizard of Oz

Newer -
Rescuers Down Under = female mouse Bianca leads the rescue of a boy trapped by a poacher

Nancy Drew
American Girls movies
Jane and the Dragon


You may want to skip this one because it has Barbie, but Barbie and the Diamond Castle has two girls who are friends and save another girl trapped in a mirror.

[roostery]

OK, I haven't looked at it yet, but I'm going to try Facets Non-Violent Non-Sexist Children's Movie Guide. It sounds good anyway. My library doesn't seem to carry it.

[tropicalmom]

Thanks so much for this string and all the posts. I'm off to order alot of these for 3yo dd.

[rainbringer]

Picture books with strong female role models -
Snail Girl Brings Water - a girl brings water to the Navajo (dd's favorite)

Seven Chinese Sisters - the six older sisters rescue the baby from the dragon

One Grain of Rice - a girl tricks the rajah into sharing rice with all his people

Miss Rumphius - about making the world a more beautiful place

[St. Margaret]

I just skimmed all the suggestions, so sorry if there are repeats:

What about Jane and the Dragon? There are like three books and it was a PBS show too, I think.

Paperbag Princess

Free to Be You And Me from the 70s has all these shorts (you can find them on youtube to check out) and it's insanely equitable, genderwise, at least for the parts I've seen so far.

Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman is a poem/picture book, very short, but very good. His other stuff has girls in it without being all about girly stuff, but they do tend to be scary (ie Wolves in the Walls).

I would check out Barefoot Books' website, because they are sure to have a TON of great stuff. They are cool like that!

[elanorh]

I second the suggestions of DVDs of:
Wall-e
The Secret of Roan Inish
Planet Earth (there are parts we skipped though, i.e. baby caribou being eaten)

And also agree about Miss Rumphius (Cooney is the author I think). It's lovely.

Have to run but will add more later -- we have the same focus in our house.

ETA:
Pixar movies are favorites in our house - we have them all, and the girls love Jesse of Toy Story 2. I think there's less gender bias in those movies. No "princess" aspects.

We watch concert DVDs - U2, Talking Heads, and Fleetwood Mac are the current favorites (I need to find some good female concert DVDs although Fleetwood Mac has lots of female singer time ).

We aren't TV-free, but we are Science-channel/Discovery-channel 'heavy' with the girls. We don't watch kids' tv really.

Books--
The Ordinary Princess, MM Kaye -- about the seventh princess in her family, who is gifted with 'ordinariness' by a fairy godmother. It does a good job of showing that a good heart and intelligence etc. are best of all. We like it. It's a chapter book.

We err towards books about animals/nature a lot -- the Winnie the Pooh Encyclopedia of Nature and Encyclopedia of Animals are both good. They talk about how the mammals 'drink their mother's milk,' etc. which I like a lot. The Big Red Barn, Boynton Books, Jan Brett books often have a female character (The Trouble With Trolls, etc.) and are beautifully illustrated.

HTH some ....!

[Thalia the Muse]

The Frances and Madeline picture-book series both have strong, interesting female protagonists. They aren't heroic, it's just regular life. Others:

Chrysanthemum
Lily's Purple Plastic Purse and the other books about Lily, Kevin Henkes
Paper-Bag Princess
The Little Engine That Could -- I'm always surprised how many people forget the engine is a girl!
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses
The Little Old Woman Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

For DVDs, I recomend Charlie and Lola -- again, just real life, but Lola is a delightful kid with a big imagination! Backyardigans is full of strong female characters.

[eko_mom]

Found a great one

The BBC's Charlie and Lola, based on the books. Absolutely wonderful. Short episodes, about sibs with a great relationship with each other, creative, non-violent, funny. We ordered from Netflix.

[eko_mom]

Hey all,

I started this thread a couple years ago...but still seeking. Any new ideas. We've since watched Kiki's Delivery Service, Ponyo and My Neighbor Totoro. They are WONDERFUL and we watch them over and over.

[earthworm]

Looking for ideas as well.

There's always Pippi Longstocking! "The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking" is available streaming on Netflix.  And of course there are the Pippi books. I have heard great things about other books by Astrid Lindgren as well, though I'm not sure the best age range for those. Or Pippi for that matter! It's been so long so please forgive me if it actually isn't all that nonsexist. I'm pretty sure the character Pippi is good, but no idea about the other characters!

ETA: I did some searching and found this:

http://diaspora.gen.nz/~maire/blog/index.php?/archives/16-Movies-for-preschoolers.html

I think a lot of the movies listed have been mentioned here, but there are more.

[A&A]

Dora the Explorer

[Okapi]

I found a picture book for DD called "Tough Chicks." It is about chicks in a barnyard who are told to be cute & quiet, but they don't, and they end up saving the day. My 3 year old likes it.

She also likes Ponyo & Totoro, as others have mentioned, and LOVES Wonder Pets (although I have to admit I saw it probably 20 times before I realized it was Linny, not Lenny).  

[elanorh]

A couple chapter books I've read since this thread was up --

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Lin) - great story set in China with a girl who goes on a journey. 

Night Fairy (about a fairy (female) -  mix of male and female characters otherwise; if your dd is old enough to listen to chapter books, this is fine for a 4-6 year old easily.

Nory Ryan's Song (for older girls, it's about the Irish Potato Famine - probably 3rd grade?)

....When she gets just a little older, she actually reaches the point where many, many of the books have female rather than male protagonists.  It's weird that way.  But there are more and more good books as she grows older. 

I'm glad you found Totoro and enjoyed it.  This thread was where I heard about it, and our girls love it too - to the extent that dd2's Christmas gift was a Totoro, and the girls are lobbying hard for a Cat Bus, and the blue and white totoros next.    We have also enjoyed Ponyo (ordering it for our own collection now), although we liked Kiki's Delivery Service, we didn't like it enough to order it. 

We watched The Sound of Music awhile ago, and really the nuns and Maria do most of the rescuing in that movie ....? 

Also there used to be a cartoon that dh liked to watch when dd1 was a baby - with a girl superhero - Kim Possible?  She was pretty independent and strong.  I didn't pay a lot of attention to the show, so it could use some previewing before you try it out with dds .....  (Here's a wiki link about it:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Possible ).  My memory of it was that she wasn't really 'sexy' or anything but it's been quite some time sine I've watched it. 

[A&A]

The DVD Whale Rider is very good.  It's a little heavy for younger children, though.  So, save it for when she is older.

[philomom]

Originally Posted by A&A 

The DVD Whale Rider is very good.  It's a little heavy for younger children, though.  So, save it for when she is older.

Yes, it has intense family emotion and drug paraphernalia. Definitely for the older tweens.