Well-Dressed Role Models
The Portrayal of Women in Biographies for Children
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Scarecrow Press
Published:8th Jun '06
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This study provides a qualitative exploration of juvenile biographies of women, a genre defined here as a book dealing with the whole or partial life of an individual and reviewed as nonfiction for readers in elementary, middle, or junior high school. Beginning with a survey of juvenile material on Elizabeth Tudor published in England and the United States between 1852 and 2002, author Gale Eaton scrutinizes thirty-four books—juvenile biographies, histories, and collected biographies—for trends in both content and rhetoric. Well-Dressed Role Models: The Portrayal of Women in Biographies for Children then goes on to look at close readings of books published in the United States in the years 1946, 1971, and 1996 and presents a penetrating analysis of a genre that serves the needs of youth. The findings of this study include the fact that juvenile biographies make role models out of women who, in many cases, never would have become famous by following all the rules for good girls. By choice of subject and emphasis, their authors dress the life stories of real women in the appropriate values of new generations. Three appendixes providing annotated book lists for each of the three years analyzed conclude this study.
Leavening scholarship with mild irony, Eaton offers a perceptive four-way study of—literally, in part—changing fashions in modern biographies for young readers. * School Library Journal, 12/1/2006 *
...Gale Eaton shows that an analysis of this neglected genre can yield intriguing results. Eaton provides close readings of numerous juvenile biographies of notable women published between the mid-1940s and the mid-1990s. * Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Winter 2006) *
The book...offers interesting insights....A useful tool for teaches and librarians. * Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature *
Eaton (library and information studies, U. of Rhode Island) examines juvenile biographies, histories, and collected biographies of women for how they have changed in their content as well as assumptions about what a female role model should be like. She begins with 34 biographies of Elizabeth Tudor that were published in England and the US from 1852 to 2002 and analyzes their accuracy, rhetoric, and absent information. By using a "snapshot" approach, 99 biographies of women in 1946, 1971, and 1996 are then studied, specifically in close readings rather than content only. The final chapters consider themes about appearance, public vs. private lives, and involvement in the community. One chapter is devoted to Pocahontas. Books were chosen if they consider the whole or partial life of a woman, and are aimed at elementary, middle, and junior high school readers. Eaton provides an annotated list of biographies by subject in each of the years studied. * Reference and Research Book News, August 2006 *
ISBN: 9780810851948
Dimensions: 218mm x 176mm x 21mm
Weight: 376g
288 pages