BooksforTopics Reading for Pleasure Recommendations
Book Title: Girls Can Do Anything
Author: Caryl Hart
Illustrator: Ali Pye
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: August 2018
Most Suitable For: EYFS & KS1
When discussing her reasons for wanting to write Girls Can Do Anything, author Caryl Hart explains ‘I realised that, as a children’s author, I had an opportunity to show our youngest children that the world belongs as much to girls as it does to boys. I wanted to demonstrate that girls are allowed and entitled to create a space for themselves wherever they choose – whatever their interests or passions may be, and for that to be okay.’
Girls Can Do Anything is a rhyming picture book portraying scores of young girls – all with different body shapes, skin colours, hairstyles and clothing choices – gleefully participating in the hobbies and careers that they choose for themselves.
Some girls, the book explains, love arts and crafts while others are skilled in speaking out for others in difficult times. Some girls find science exciting, others solve crimes and others still excel in sports. Some girls are gentle and others are rough, with a myriad of other possible personalities in between. Girls can become pilots, engineers, zookeepers, explorers or whatever else they want to be.
A diverse selection of girls are represented in the pictures, including wheelchair users, girls wearing head coverings and a girl with no hair at all. What they have in common is that they are all happily absorbed in whatever it is that they wish to do.
The bright and bold illustrations and the bouncy, rhythmical text work together to give the book a consistently positive and celebratory tone that communicates an empowering message about pursuing dreams. There are also several nods to real-life inspiring female heroes, both in the main text and also in the endpapers, because positive role models are so important in inspiring and pursuing ambitions
This is a picture book that has the potential to open up important discussions with both girls and boys about equality and opportunity. Girls Can Do Anything would be an excellent choice for reception and KS1 classroom libraries.
Many thanks to the publisher for kindly sending me a review copy of this book.
Order Girls Can Do Anything online or from your local bookshop or library.
