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Guest Post : Strong Girls

Our friends at Tara Books join us to spread awareness about National Girl Child Day with the following guest post :

National Girl Child Day is about a dream of possibility : “ to raise public awareness on the deep bias against female children in India.”
Sixteen years ago, Tara’s first book was called Mala: A feminist folktale. Now out of print, the book featured a strong willed girl who didn’t wait around to be rescued, but defeated a demon by herself. Tara’ s vision has always been about picture books for children which keep in mind a clear gender perspective. Books with strong female characters as diverse and three dimensional as their real-life counterparts. Books that would move the representation of young women beyond the boundaries of a narrow understanding of femininity. Books which – above all – would playfully engage children of both sexes.
So as we mark National Girl Child Day in India, we celebrate some our favourite female characters: Velu, the spirited ragpicker from Trash; Tala, the hero with magical powers in Today is My Day, and Meena – the young fisher-girl, whose sensible intelligence prevails in Catch that Crocodile!
Fictional they may be, but at the end of the day fiction is more than a story, and more too than a mirror held up to the society it represents. It is a powerful shaping force in its own right.
So who is your favourite female character?

Click here to visit the Tara Books blog and read more about the work they do.

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DISCLAIMER :Everything here is the personal opinions of the authors and is not read or approved by pratham books before it is posted. No warranties or other guarantees will be offered as to the quality of the opinions or anything else offered here