Gender Equality Bookstore
Children's books to foster equality

Jonathan, an elementary-school boy, is not strong enough to help his father, a beekeeper, with his work, and his father is annoyed. The father seems to prefer Jonathan’s preschool brother, who loves to show off his muscles. The family is struggling financially: a dry spell means less honey to sell.

One day, Jonathan helps his mother make beeswax candles by decorating them with tiny beeswax sculptures. His father is impressed, and starts to appreciate Jonathan’s artistic skill. The decorated candles sell out at the farmer’s market, and Jonathan collects many more orders.  That night, Jonathan and his father enjoy some quiet time on the porch as the rain finally comes down.

This unusual picture book contains bee facts on each page. My sons were interested to learn, for example, that bees’ wings beat 180 times per second.

Another thing I liked about this book is that the parents are a mixed-race couple. This is never mentioned in the story, but the watercolor pictures by Joline McFadden show a fair blond father and a brown-skinned, black-haired mother. It is rare to see a mixed-race couple presented in a picture book in a matter-of-fact way, without a lot of commentary.

You can buy this book from my boys list.

This funny picture book deals with a subject that many little boys think about, but that is rarely written about in children’s books. One day, while Martin is changing his clothes after swimming, another boy, Adrian, makes fun of Martin, saying that his “zizi” is too small, and that he will never be able to make babies with a little zizi. Martin is worried because the girl he likes, Anais, wants to have 10 babies! How will he possibly make all those babies?

To make matters worse, Adrian decides that the boys should have a peeing contest to decide who will be Anais’s boyfriend. Despite hours of practice, Martin loses the contest, Adrian wins, and Adrian declares himself the boyfriend of Anais.

But Anais has other plans. She rejects Adrian and writes a love note to Martin. The book ends with a reassurance: “love isn’t a question of a zizi — large or small.”

This book was originally written in French and published in Canada. The author says he wrote the book because he believes that “much of the world’s misfortune comes from men thinking they have to assert their manliness,” according to the jacket copy.

My two boys found this book a bit shocking, but fascinating. The illustrations are very tasteful (the story takes place in an old-fashioned city), and the book makes its point without preaching.

You can buy this book from my Boys list.

This beautiful picture book tells the story of Gray Wolf, a native boy of the Pacific Northwest who is given a task by his uncle, Raven’s Head: Gray Wolf is to find a very important person, and get to know this person well.

Throughout the next year, Gray Wolf asks various animals if they know of this important person. Sister Bear, Brother Whale, and Sister Eagle claim never to have seen such a person. To them, all humans look and act alike. 

Gray Wolf meets with Raven’s Head again, but sadly tells him that he has not found the very important person. Raven’s Head advises him to “look within.”

As I was reading this book, at this point I assumed that the “very important person” would turn out to be Gray Wolf himself. But my 7-year-old son guessed that the important person would turn out to be everyone. And, in fact, my son was correct. Gray Wolf comes to realize that his family and friends are all equally important, and he brings this message back to his clan.

This book provides an interesting message of community to balance the message of individuality that we often get from mainstream culture. We are all important.

I also like the fact that both female and male animals are included. So often, animals in pictures books are almost exclusively male. The paintings in this book are absolutely gorgeous.

I highly recommend this story for ages 5 and up. You can buy this book from my Boys list.