You Wait and See:  A Story with “Feminist Implications”

I vaguely remember my elementary school librarian reading us a book and discussing the “feminist implications” surrounding the story.  I had no idea what he was talking about but I absolutely loved the story.  The next time I was able to buy a book for our house, I picked the story of the five Easter Bunnies.  I read it over and over and never really thought about the “feminist implications” again.  I just imagined wearing those gold shoes and taking the special egg to the sick boy far away.  I am not sure what happened to that book.

Then, 20 years later, I discovered the book while I was looking for the perfect Easter Book for Big Guy.  The cover looked familiar and I sat down at the bookstore to refresh my memory.  There they were, on almost every page, feminist implications.  The importance of mothering and the kindness and wisdom that often only mothers of the most precocious children posses.  The story about teaching your children to be self-sufficient, work as a team, be kind to one another.  The story about beating the odds, and breaking through the stereotypes that the biggest and strongest are always the best.  It focuses on patience and courage and most of all compassion.

So, today, I was tutoring two little girls at the boy’s.  Two girls that struggled with reading and one hearing, as well.  Two girls who had just recently moved to the area from different edges of the state….one because her mom needed a better paying job.  I was ecstatic when one of the girls handed me the book with the familiar cover.  And, I had to.  I had to say at the end, this is a really old book, written a long time ago when women were not permitted to do really important jobs.  It has a lot of “feminist implications”.  They looked at me with the same blank stare I remember giving my librarian, but it is a seed.  Who knows where it will go.

This was so me when I was a child….really through college.

This was me when I re-discovered this book through now.  (I know I only have two, but most days it feels like twenty-one.)

I can only hope that when I have two grown boys I still have the kindness and wisdom and most of all courage for this phase of life.

The boys and I read this book every Easter and some times during other parts of the year.  I think it is important that they hear these stories too.  Stories that will help shape their views of their wives, their daughters and hopefully their mother.

Have you read The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, by Du Bose Heyward?