Title: The Princess Knight Author: Cornelia Funke Illustrator: Kerstin Meyer Publication Date: 2001 Plot Summary: King Wilfred the Worthy had three sons. He brought up the three sons just as his father had brought him up. He wanted them to be better than his best knights from learning to ride, joust, fight with swords, but also have the best table manners in the entire kingdom. Finally, Queen Violetta had a daughter, then died when she gave birth. They decided to name the baby girl Violetta after her mother. The king decided to teach the same lessons to his daughter as he did to his sons. She was a small girl and could hardly lift a sword or even mount a horse. Her brothers would laugh and tease her for how she wasn t as strong as they were. Violetta talked to her nursemaid one evening and explained to her that she was more determined than ever to be like her brothers and if possible, better. After that night, Violetta slipped out of the castle as the gardener s son would keep watch for her. She practiced all the things her brothers could do, but in her own way, she was very quiet about it too. Soon, Violetta became so quick that when she practiced with her three brothers, she was finally better than them. One day King Wilfred told her that he was going to hold a tournament in honor of her birthday. The prize for the best knight would be Violetta s hand in marriage. Violetta got quite angry at this. Her father locked her up in the tower until the moon was shining brightly in the sky. The next day all these knights came to the castle for the tournament. Sir No-Name rode in and beat all of the knights, even her brothers! By the end nobody else was willing to fight, so Sir No-Name rode to the king to claim the prize. Sir No- Name took off her helmet and it ended up being Violetta. The king was speechless. Violetta rode off far away on her horse and did not return for a year and a day. Nobody challenged the princess again and she ended up marrying the rose gardener s son who used to keep watch for her and they lived happily ever after. Multicultural Focus: Gender is a big diversity issue and challenge for many families in our society. Transgender is a person whose gender identity, gender expression, or behavior does not match the sex that they are. The ways that transgender people are talked about in popular culture are constantly changing. In this story Kind Wilfred doesn t know how to
raise a daughter, so he raises her like he does his sons. Violetta wants to be just like her brothers and doesn t like being the weak little girl they think she is. Once she is strong enough, she shows up her brothers and shows her dad that she is the best knight in the town. This shows that she is being brought up very tom-boyish. There are many positive messages in this story: 1. Anybody can be whoever they want. If a girl wants to be a fireman, she can be a fireman. If a guy wants to be a nurse, he can be a nurse. 2. Girls can be just as tough or strong as any guy can. She proved to be the best knight out of the whole village. Teaching Activity Idea: In younger grades like 1 st, 2 nd or 3 rd, students are just learning gender roles and what the norms are. As a teacher, I would have my students be broken up into 4 different groups. One group would play football, the second group would play basketball, the third group would play with the toy dolls, and the fourth group would make noodle necklaces. After 20 minutes of each station, you would come together as a whole group and explain that girls and guys can do anything that they want to do. Tell them that whatever they set their minds to, they could achieve. Title: And Tango Makes Three Author: Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell Illustrator: Henry Cole Publication Date: 2005 Plot Summary: There is a huge park named Central Park in the middle of New York City. It has a toyboat pond, a carousel and even an ice rink. Best of all, it has a zoo. Families of all shapes, sizes, and kinds go there to visit the animals and their families. There are red panda mom and dads with furry red bear cubs. There are monkey dads and moms raising loud monkey babies. There are toad, toucan, and cotton-top tamarin families too. In the penguin house, there are a ton of penguin families. At the same time every single year, girl penguins start to flilrting the boy penguins and vice versa. When the perfect girl and perfect boy find each other, they become a cute penguin couple. Two penguins in the penguin house were a little bit different than the others. One was named Silo and the other was named Roy. Roy and Silo were both boys, best friends, and they did everything together. They didn t spend much time with the girl penguins that were
around. Roy and Silo wound their necks around each other. Mr. Gramzay saw the two penguins and thought that they were in love. Roy and Silo watched the other penguins make a home. So they made a nest of stones for themselves. However, one day, they saw the other couples doing something that they could not. The mama penguin would lay an egg then she and the papa penguin would take turns keeping the egg warm until it would be able to hatch. Finally a baby penguin would arrive. Roy and Silo noticed that their nest was empty; this made them very sad and confused. One day Roy found something that looked like what the other penguins were hatching and brought it to their nest. It was only just a rock, but they sat and sat for as long as they could. Day after day and night after night nothing would happen. So, Mr. Gamzay found an egg that needed to be cared for and took it to Silo and Roy s nest. Silo and Roy sat and sat until one day they heard a little sound coming from the egg. Suddenly a tiny hole appeared in the egg s shell and then came their very own baby. They decided to call her Tango, because it takes two to make a Tango. She had fuzzy white feathers and a funny black beak. Tango was the first penguin in the zoo to have two fathers and not just one father and one mother. She finally grew enough to be able to leave the nest, they took her swimming. At the end of the night they cuddled each other just like all of the other penguin families, and all of the other animals, and all of the families in the big city around them, and went to sleep. Multicultural Focus: Sexual Orientation refers to how a person has romantic, emotional, or sexual attraction to another person. This book shows how two guy penguins wanted to hang out together and not with the girls. They wanted to raise a child together and be like all the other families. They sort of adopted a penguin to hatch and take care of. In today s society, it is very hard for a homosexual couple to adopt a child. There are a lot of stereotypical ideas that float around. You need to teach children at a young age that they can love whoever they want and be with whoever they want. They don t HAVE to be straight to be accepted. Many professionals and employees are still fearful of identifying themselves as gay or lesbian in their work settings. Gay relationships are not widely recognized in any legal way. Teaching Activity Idea: In older grades like 9 th 12 th, students sometimes start to come out of the closet or start showing that they are homosexual. Being a teacher I would want to take a week out of April, which is in fact Gay Pride month, and teach the students how to accept their peers who are in fact gay. We could have speakers come in and talk about different topics and being gay. For example, take Military Monday and talk about being gay in the military. This should teach students to respect each other and not just make assumptions about each other right away. Get to know somebody different and a little piece of what they are going through.
Tile: Baseball Ballerina Author: Kathryn Cristaldi Illustrated By: Abby Carter Publication Date: 1992 Plot Summary: A young girl loves to play shortstop for her little league baseball team called the Sharks. Her Mom thinks that baseball is for boys and she should do more "girly things" so, her mom puts her in ballet. The young girl rather wear her cool baseball cap and cool green T-shirts than, her pink tights and pink slippers. The young girl explains, Mom puts a pink ribbon in my hair. She says, "Pink is for girls." I hate pink." The young girl simply does not like what she has to wear for ballet classes and does not like the color pink. Since her mom wants her to do more "girly things" she attends dance class where she has to wear the color pink. Well in ballet classes, she finds out her best friend Mary Ann is taking the class too. Mary Ann is the catcher for the Sharks; her mom thinks she needs to do more girl stuff as well. Here we find both girls who rather play baseball than be in ballet classes. In class the two best friends make a deal to keep their ballet a secret because they think their team members will think their wimps. During ballet class the young girl is day dreaming about batting or playing shortstop instead of listening too Madame the ballet teacher. After a few ballet classes Mary Ann begins to actually enjoy ballet, in which she starts acting a little more girly and the young girl finds it to be so odd. The ballet class is going to put on a recital and Mary Ann gets chosen to be the lead role. In the recital the class will be dressing as dandelions and Mary Ann will be Queen Dandelion. The young girl just gets nervous about the fact the she will now be performing in front of an audience including her baseball team the Sharks, as a flower. The night of the recital the young girl is really nervous so she closes her eyes and pictures herself playing at the baseball World Series with her team the Sharks. She
thinks, I cannot let my team down Tonight my team is called the Dandelions. This thought gives the young girl the courage to perform on stage. When it is time for Queen Dandelion to get on stage, Mary Ann s crown flies off her head and goes flying across the stage. The young girl realizes the crown is like a baseball flying in the air so she dances across the stage to catch and save the crown. The crowd cheers for her as she makes the catch. After, the dance recital the Sharks all come up to her, give her high fives and tell her she did great. She comes to the conclusion that maybe ballet is not so bad. She can dance girl things and play shortstop boy things. Multicultural Focus: Throughout our society the issue about gender has been a big diversity and cultural issue. This issue can reflect into many different challenges with families, schools or in everyday life. There are many different gender stereotypes out there in the world like what are girl things and boy things. The saying girl things is a stereotype in how for example, ballet is a girl thing and baseball is a boy thing. This stereotype is a common problem in our society and can lead to getting made fun of. Students or people in general get made fun every day because they are not doing what their gender should be doing according to society. Baseball Ballerina by Kathryn Cristaldi is a great book in which can help break down some of those gender stereotypes in the classroom as well as in everyday life. This book shows a young girl who loves baseball, and is placed in ballet classes because her mom wants her to do more girl things. The young girl makes a deal with her best friend Mary Ann to not tell their baseball team the Sharks that they are in ballet classes because she does not want them to think their wimps. Later in the story, the young girl breaks down both of these gender barriers when she is at her recital and is about to perform on stage in front of family, friends and the Sharks. The young girl is so nervous that she will be made fun of because she is in ballet. She does not want her baseball team to think she is a wimp. In order to get the courage to go on stage the young girl pictures her ballet classmates as a team and she does not want to let her team down. This thought pushes her to see that ballet is in some ways like baseball; both ballet and baseball are teams. She wants to help both teams succeed. So the young girl sets out onto the stage to show everyone she can do girl things and boy things, well not caring if she gets made fun of. During the performance Mary Ann s crown goes flying in the air and the young girl saves the crown from falling on the ground by dancing across the stage and catching it. Her teammates and the crowd cheer for her and after the recital the Sharks compliment her. This shows the young girl, that it is okay to do both girl things and boy things. Baseball Ballerina, allows the readers to understand that: 1. These gender stereotypes created by society can be broken down in simple ways. 2. It shows readers that it is okay to want to do things you like no matter if its "boy things" or "girl things". 3. It is okay to try new things that you could like no matter what your gender is. Teaching Activity Ideas: In grades 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade, students are sometimes starting to develop different
likes other than their "gender norm". For example, Girls might like to play football and boys might like to take dance classes. In these grades most students are learning about expecting others for who they are and respecting one another. As a teacher, I want to help students understand that it is okay to like things out of their "norm". For an activity I would divide my class room into two groups. Group One will be of all boys and Group Two will be of all girls. Each group has 10minutes to come up with what each gender likes on a big piece of construction paper. For example, group one will write everything "boys like" and group two will write everything "girls like". Likes could be what they like to do on their free time, toys they like, what they like to watch on tv, what animals or sports they like. Once the time is up we will then come together as a class and we will place both groups construction paper on the white board. As a class we will than write a list on the white board in which each group had similar. This activity will help students understand that they are similar in many ways and different in many ways. It will also show them that is okay to like things of the opposite gender. Students could also make a list individually about what they like and share their list with the whole class. This activity will help students expect everyone s likes regardless if they are "boy" or "girl" things. Title: Ballerino Nate Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Illustator: R.W. Alley Publication: 2006 Plot Summary: Nate is a small gray haired dog in this all dog story who wants to learn ballet after attending a kindergarten school field trip to a ballet school performance at the end of the
school year. "He loved the fluttery costumes... He loved the way the dancers jumped and leaped and spun." When Nate tells his mom he wants to take ballet dance classes, his older brother Ben says You can't, You're a boy". Nate tells Ben that he wants too. Nate begs his mom once again to please put him in ballet classes. Since there are no classes during the summer Nate's mom tells him he will have to wait till fall. All summer long Nate dances around the house and everywhere he can in hopes he will be able to take ballet classes. Nate's mom reads him books about ballet so he can learn some more information about ballet. Just before school starts in the fall Nate's mom finally tell him he will be able to take ballet class with Miss Nadia at the ballet school. Nate is super excited and cannot wait to be a ballerina. Ben continues to tell Nate, "Boys can't be ballerinas." From hearing Ben tell Nate over and over again that boys cannot dance or ballerinas, Nate starts to think maybe he is right. Ben tells Nate that he will have to wear a pink dress and pink shoes and this worries Nate even more. Nate ask his dad if this is true and his dad explains that no he does not have to wear pink shoes or a dress. His dad tells him that they have black and white shoes and that even though most girls are ballerinas there are boys whom dance as well. Once attending Nate's first ballet class he notices that his class is filled of girls whom are wearing pick dresses and pick shoes. Nate acts like he does not care but deep down inside he is nervous Ben might just be right. Nate loved his ballet class and teacher but, could still hear Ben saying boys don't dance. To lifts his sprits Nate's mom tell him that she will be taking him to a real professional ballet performance. She explains to Nate and Ben that, professional ballet dancers dance as a career in which they get paid. Nate's Dad then explains that this is a professional job like professional baseball players. Nate's Dad says, "Majorleague dancing." At the professional ballet, Nate gets really excited once he sees that there are boys dancing ballet and that "Half of them are boys." Nate was excited and was encouraged to see that boys can be ballerinas. After the performance Nate's mom took him to the side door of the theater where Nate had the chance to meet a male dancer. Nate asked the dancer if he was a ballerina and in response he told Nate no. He explains that only the top dancers of the company are called ballerinas and men can't be ballerinas. In shock Nate tells the dancer that his brother was right. The dancer then explains to Nate that men can't be ballerinas because ballerinas are female dancers and that the word "Ballerino is the word for men." Nate is then very excited that now he understands that the men are callled ballerinos when dancing ballet. He also is excited that there are male dancers whom dance ballet. Nate is now egger to tell his brother Ben the good news. Multicultural Focus: In our society of today many genders are not expected by many to pursue different careers that are not of the "gender norm." This causes children and adults to assume that they can only select professions or activities to their "gender norm." In the book "Ballerino Nate" by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley the character Nate whom is a kindergartner is wanting to dance ballet after attending a school ballet performance. This is showing that Nate is wanting to seek a new activity or possibly a career outside of his "gender nom." Nate is told by his brother Ben that this is not something boys do. Nate then attends ballet classes where he has found that maybe his brother is right because everyone in his ballet class is a girl even his teacher. Nate loves his dance
class and his teacher but by being told numerous times by his brother Ben that "Boys don't dance," he is afraid that his brother might be right. Nate's brother is used to the "gender norm" that he does not know or think its okay for Nate to want to be a dancer. Nate's parents tell him that boys can be dancers and that there are even professional ballet dancers. Nate did not know that professional ballet dancers actually get paid just like professional baseball players. To keep Nate interested in wanting to be a ballerina and understand that boys can dance his mom takes him to a professional ballet performance. At the performance Nate notices that there are boys dancers and even half of the dance company is boy dancers. This raises his hopes in wanting to be a ballerina. His Mom takes him to the side door of the theater after the performance. Nate meets a male dancer whom he ask if he is a ballerina and the male dancer explains to Nate that men cannot be ballerinas. Nate now is back to thinking his brother might just be right till the dance informs Nate that a male dancer is actually called a ballerino. Nate is excited to hear that not only are there male dancers but boys can dance ballet and be called ballerinos. Nate is now very excited to tell him brother that boys can be dancers. "Ballerino Nate," allows a reader to understand: 1. It is okay to want to do an activity or profession that is not of the "gender norm." 2. Readers can now see that there are professions in which there can be both male and female. 3. Readers also see that by doing something you like and sticking up for what you want is okay. Nate throughout the book told his brother continuously that he can be a dancer and will be one. Teaching Activities Idea: In the grades 3rd, 4th and 5th grade it is important that students believe the can do and be whatever they want to be regardless, if it is outside of their "gender norm." As a teacher is it very important to me that students understand they can pursue or do anything they want that is outside of the "gender norm." An activity that will help students understand that there are professions in which both men and women can do I will have the class divided in four groups. Each group will be given a famous person who was first of their gender to pursue a career outside of their gender norm. Each group will have to research their famous person and write down some important facts about them. Each group will then share their famous person to the class. Another activity that each student can do would be too write a letter to their famous person saying how they thought it was courageous for them to do something outside the "gender norm." These will allows students to understand they can be whatever they want when their older and they can be whoever they want to be now.