Authors Electric

Dr Javid Abdelmoneim with pupils from Lanesend, Isle of Wight We may just have come to the end of the summer holidays but anyone watching BBC Two’s fascinating class room experiment with 7 year-olds, No More Boys and Girls: Can Our Kids Go Gender-free? , should feel they’ve had a lesson they’ll never forget.   By challenging some of the silly stereotypes that children of this age have, sadly, already taken on board, the idea was to show all of them, whatever sex, that with regard to what they want to do in life, the sky’s the limit. ‘Everyone can choose to be anything they want,’ cried one boy after discovering that, just as girls can become car mechanics and architects, so can boys go in for ballet and make-up artistry.   Hurrah! Good news though this is, I can’t help asking – why is it news ? How, in the name of our children’s health, did we get to the point where 7 year-olds – interviewed before the experiment - have already decided that ‘girls are good at being...

You might not think there's much connection, but after a fortnight of minding my grandchildren for the Easter holidays, I'm not so sure.  They are 6 and 2, so right in the thick of the target area for children's books and TV programmes.  Early mornings were a hazy memory of Miffy, Peppa Pig, My Little Pony, and Horrid Henry, with occasional excursions into the Dumping Ground and/or the curiously spotty world of Mr Tumble. Evenings were a time for bed-night stories on similar lines. They all seem to have one thing in common, something that makes doing a bit of shopping in the local supermarket a risky enterprise - Merchandising!   When faced with tearful little faces at the check-out, who can resist £1.50 for two my little ponies complete with mirror, comb and hair-dryer (each one no bigger than my finger nail and lost down the car seat within minutes!)? The Horrid Henry books have their own web-shop offering Horrid Henry T-shirts, games, Apps, stickers, toys, p...