Mary Wears What She Wants, by Keith Negley

I wasn't going to write about this book, primarily because there are countless children's books out there either explicitly about feminism or with main characters who are brave, smart girls.  And we're lucky that at an age when many children start to segregate themselves by gender, my son still has many female friends.  He remains gobsmacked by the idea that any of these hilarious, interesting, fun girls he knows would ever be treated differently than a boy; the best player on his basketball team is a girl and in his eyes Serena Williams is the "best tennis player in the world!"  However, there was something about this book - my son won't let me return it to the library and at a time when he mostly wants to read chapter books he keeps picking this off the shelf at night.

The story itself is simple.  Mary and the other girls are all expected to wear skirts, all the time.  My son found this so outrageously shocking the first time we read the story that he actually stared at me with his mouth hanging open!  However, one day Mary wears pants, only to be met with outrage.  After a talk with her dad, she wears them again the next day, but happily discovers that some of the the other girls are now wearing pants as well.

There is a page in the back discussing Mary Edwards Walker, who the story is based on.  I think that this is part of the appeal, how grounded the story is in reality and how clear cut the disparate treatment is.  His favorite part was discussing how Dr. Walker was a surgeon in the Civil War and was captured by the Confederates (but still lived to tell the tale).

BUY HERE (or, even better, request at your local library!)

Edited to recommend a similar book, Born to Ride by Larissa Theule.  I'm not going to do a separate post because both my son and I far preferred Mary Wears What She Wants, but this is also a historically accurate story about how girls were initially discouraged from riding bikes because of the risk of "bicycle face" - essentially, that the strain of riding a bicycle could potentially disfigure a girl's face.  We checked this out of the library and read it several times, and if your child is into the history of feminism this is a worthwhile and entertaining book.