Nine.
Nine is when it really might start to hit you that your kid is going to be smarter than you ever were, or could hope to be.
In addition to sharing a childhood favorite, I had an ulterior motive in picking Watership Down for us to read together; I was hoping I might wean her off that awful Warrior Cats series. In the interests of full disclosure, I have not read more than a couple of isolated chapters in the series. Initially, I was just irritated with the names and what a pain in the ass mouthful they were when reading aloud. My disdain really kicked in to high gear when we discovered that Erin Hunter is not one person, but rather three women hired by Harper Collins to push out a seemingly endless series about semi-feral cats.
I thought the plight of a rag tag band of anthropomorphic rabbits would draw her in, and away, from those damned cats.
I was wrong. My sweet little riot grrrl immediately noticed what I had never even picked up on.
"Why are all the main characters male?" It having been a while since I'd read Watership Down, I responded that I was pretty sure there would be some female characters. After all, we were only a couple of chapters into the story.
"But they've already mentioned the does. They are just for mating, and digging burrows. I doubt there's going to be lead female character in this."
Um...she's right. I sort of feebly protested that it was still a pretty good story and maybe we should just, you know finish it? It being a classic and all?
"Mom," said gravely, and with an inflection that suggested it pained her to have to educate me on this matter, "I really don't think...as a girl...that I will enjoy this book."
"Oh, uh...okay"
Crap. What a total FAIL. On the other hand, feminist nine year old, WIN. Too bad I didn't have much, if anything, to do with it.
'let' her watch The Trap ??
Posted by: citrus | December 18, 2009 at 09:25 AM
did she care when the 'male' cows in Barnyard had udders ? noooo
Posted by: citrus | December 18, 2009 at 09:30 AM
Three women! Ugh, I can't stand those books either and E is obsessed with them.
I'm chest bumping Astrid though, go woman!
Posted by: Dawn | December 18, 2009 at 11:50 AM
They may be a tad young for your daughter, but the Catwings series (I think there are only four, slim novellas) is about the sweetest thing ever. My son loved them when he was her age.
Posted by: Brenda | January 04, 2010 at 03:16 PM
Brenda,
We loved the Catwings series! She re-read them recently;)
Posted by: triple p | January 05, 2010 at 08:57 PM