Posted by John Birch on July 05, 2000 at 13:24:06 from gateway1.gsi.gov.uk:
In Reply to: Bossy females posted by John Wilson on July 04, 2000 at 10:42:46:
Ransome seems be be about 60 years ahead of his time in his depiction of girls. I only really noticed when introducing my daughter to the books, but I feel it is the girls characters that are one of the really remarkable things about the series - and also something that makes what might otherwise be seen as "boys" stories accessible to both sexes.
Compare and contrast, as they used to say at school, with almost any other childrens books published between 1930 and about 1990. Even in CS Lewis the girls are forced to do the less exciting stuff. Imagine Nancy being told that she couldn't take part in the battles!