“I cried when Rey picked up the light saber too. And it wasn’t because it was the greatest movie ever. It was because I’d been waiting thirty years and more for a girl to pick up a light saber, and I never even realized it before.”
My sister posted this on facebook last winter (here is the article she was responding to; it’s quite a good read). It stuck in my mind this year as I was telling Saint George and the Dragon and one little student, a first grade girl, asked if George’s sword was like Rey’s.
Rey.
I haven’t seen Rey’s movie, but I remembered the words of my sister. And I knew that little girl needed a dragon to slay!
I want to share with you The Serpent Slayer, a fantastic book all about warrior girls, pirate girls, clever women who trick the bandits out of treasure, sassy old women who outsmart the devil, and a gentle sun girl who saves and heals a dragon prince. I would have loved this book when I was little. I had a wonderful cozy rainy morning spending some time with it and my inner child.
It wasn’t like she didn’t know she was a hero. She just never had the stories to match her own. Well, now she does.
PS. I’ve found little boys love stories with a girl hero just fine. As long as there are pirates, dragons and monsters, the gender of the protagonist doesn’t seem to matter.