Well-Dressed Role Models: The Portrayal of Women in Biographies for Children

by Gale Eaton

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810851948
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/08/2006
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.92(w) x 8.58(h) x 0.84(d)

About the Author

Gale Eaton is Associate Professor of library and information studies and Assistant Director and Coordinator of Distance Learning at the University of Rhode Island.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Acknowledgments Part 2 Introduction: Biographies for Girls, 1946-1996 Chapter 3 1. Rediscovering Elizabeth Chapter 4 2. 1946: Private Women and the Public Good Chapter 5 3. 1971: Public Work and Private Loss Chapter 6 4. 1996: Objectivity and the Culture Wars Chapter 7 5. Pocahontas: Four Political Fictions Chapter 8 6. Conclusion: Dressing the Role Models Part 9 Appendix A: Biographies of 1946: An Annotated List Part 10 Appendix B: Biographies of 1971: An Annotated List Part 11 Appendix C: Biographies of 1996: An Annotated List Part 12 Index Part 13 About the Author

Editorial Reviews

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

The book...offers interesting insights....A useful tool for teaches and librarians.

Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature

...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

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

From the Publisher

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.

August 2006 Reference and Research Book News

The book...offers interesting insights....A useful tool for teaches and librarians.

Bookbird

Leavening scholarship with mild irony, Eaton offers a perceptive four-way study of-literally, in part-changing fashions in modern biographies for young readers. In the first section, the author identifies and compares every full-length or substantial biography of Elizabeth I published in the U.S. or Great Britain between 1852 and 2002. She then goes on to analyze the crops of biographies about girls and women published in 1946, in 1971, and in 1996. She considers the development of diversity issues while taking closer looks at the four biographies of Pocahontas ("a vintage American heroine") that appeared in those years, and closes with a ruminative analysis of how dress and appearance was used in her sample titles to indicate both the subjects' characters and general cultural attitudes toward women at the time of publication. Each chapter closes with separate lists of children's books and academic sources. The author traces a strong tendency over the last half century away from invented scenes and storytelling techniques to create an aesthetic reading experience, and toward those that more directly support the history curriculum but may distance readers from their subjects. In the end, she takes no definite stance, but leaves the benefits and hazards of both approaches clear for librarians and other involved adults to ponder.-John Peters, New York Public Library Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal