When my daughter Io was born I started purchasing books for reading together. I realised there were very few options that did not involve cute animals, princesses, and adorable babies. Possibilities were limited as far as the female characters went.
I thus decided to provide my daughter, and other children, especially girls, with a set of unique characters that aspire and inspire, starting with surgeon Mary. They are sharp, strong, and successful and hence the title of the series - Sharp Girls.
Surgeon Mary is not only a great inspirational option for those seeking more than the standard selection available at every bookshop but also an adventure in language. It is full of onomatopoeias which make the reading of the book fun and interactive and it is written in snappy couplets to make it easier for the little readers to pay attention to and for parents to read before the little hands turn the page. Moreover, the book rhymes and uses repetition - children love those as they find them easy to engage. The book also teaches children medical vocabulary, helping them expand their linguistic skills and knowledge of the world.
Why do we need female surgeons?
Try this first: “A father and his son are involved in a horrific car crash and the man died at the scene. But when the child arrived at the hospital and was rushed into the operating theatre, the surgeon pulled away and said: ‘I can’t operate on this boy, he’s my son’.”
That’s the Surgeon Dilemma and very few people answer that the boy’s mother is the surgeon.
So here is why we and our children need to see female surgeons represented:
- to let little girls dream of becoming who they wish to be in the future without the world limiting their ambition and options by bias, glass ceilings, and societal perceptions.
Surgeon Mary Likes to Cut is available now in our shop.
Where to Find Mary
I am well aware that not everyone can afford books yet it is important to read them to our children. This is why I always make sure that whenever I go I take my book with me and donate it to the local library. If you would like to learn about surgeon Mary here is where you can find her - links to the library catalogues are given below for convenience:
- The British Library
- University of Oxford - Bodleian Library
- University of Cambridge Library
- Trinity College Library Dublin
- Library of Congress
- National Library of Scotland
- Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna in Bytom/City of Bytom's Public Library, the city of my birth
- Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna in Piekary Slskie, filia 2/City of Piekary Slaskie's Public Library, branch no 2
- Fairy Tale Museum in Budapest