Well-dressed Role Models. The Portrayal of Women in Biographies for Children (review)

In her study on juvenile biographies of women, Gale Eaton traces this genre's development and its changes in the past 150 years. In the first chapter, the author closely examines and compares 34 books on Queen Elizabeth I published in the United States and Britain between 1852 and 2002. The three main aspects Eaton focuses on are accuracy of facts, omission of important information and rhetorical devices.

In the following three chapters, she broadens her focus to analyse various biographies of other women. Choosing three years that (as the author explains) 'mark distinct moments in women's history', Eaton uses semantic, syntagmatic and pragmatic criteria to take a closer look at twelve books from 1946,26 titles from 1971,and 51 biographies from 1996.As an example of the change in treatment of diversity issues such as minority groups, she then re-examines four biographies of the Native American heroine Pocahontas in chapter 5.The final chapter addresses three themes that played an important role in most of the biographies: clothes, publicity, and community.

Although Eaton's conclusion that there is a tendency in recent years towards more historical accuracy and away from the earlier openly didactic or fictionalised biographies may not be groundbreaking, the book nevertheless offers interesting insights into this genre. The bibliographies at the end of each chapter as well as in the appendix and the general index make this a useful tool for teachers and librarians.