When I come across books that I think will be important to my daughters, I’m going to try to write about them here on the blog. While I will call this project Books for Strong Girls, all of these books are always equally good an important to strong boys. It’s just that there are so many more books with strong boys as protagonists. I think it’s important to celebrate books (and movies, and TV shows, etc) that have strong, creative, brave girls as protagonists. I want Alma and Harriet to know that they have many great shoulders to stand on in their journeys through life.
Number 1 is Rosie Revere, Engineer By Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts.
Alma got this amazing book from her friend Max for her birthday. Here’s a disclaimer: I am still a hormonal mess these days, so what I’m going to write next might not apply to everyone. I can’t get through this book without crying. It is about a little girl who likes to build things. Once, she builds something and someone laughs at it. Then she decides to never show anyone her creations again, until someone arrives who inspires her to try again.
It is about perseverance,
It is about creativity.
It is about self-confidence.
It is about getting things wrong.
It is about trying, and trying, and trying again.
It is about girls, and women.
I feel like it is such a special gift to be able to raise two daughters. I think God trusted that Jesse and I would be able to raise two wise, confident, creative, strong women. I hope I can their ‘Great-great-Aunt Rose’ many times in their lives. I want to be amazed by their successes, and inspired by their failures.
Here’s why I cry. In the book, Rosie fails, but her great-great-aunt tells her that, she actually succeeded. She tells Rosie that the only real failure is in quitting. Alma is just getting to the age where she gets really, really frustrated when she can’t do something on her own. I know there will be lots of this frustration in her life. I don’t want her or Harriet to ever quit – quit trying, quit working, quit looking for someone who can help them, just quit.
And I want them to know that their dad and I will always be there cheering them on, laughing so hard we wheeze, and slapping our knees. Because that’s how excited we will be to see them try.