The Woman Thing

A collection of films featuring women who defied stereotypes and limitations, whether those limitations regarded politics, education, occupation, social order, etc. I always love finding these films because so often stereotypes are supported, not fought or deconstructed. It is more common for women to be weak-willed, whiny and always needing to be saved, more often seen as a love interest rather than a protagonist. It's nice to see main stream culture embrace alternative and stronger pictures of femininity every so often.

A League of Their Own

Mona Lisa Smile

Whale Rider

Iron Jawed Angels

Charlie's Angels - The Complete First Season

Little Women

Lara Croft - Tomb Raider

Kill Bill

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Pride and Prejudice

Road to Avonlea: Season 3 Specifically episode 6 "Aunt Janet Rebels" of this season, but overall this show has very strong female characters.

Coco Chanel

Erin Brockovich

Shakespeare in Love (

Wonder Woman

Elizabeth

The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman

Like it's predecessor, this book is a great children's book. Jillian is finished tidying her room and has now decided that she will make pigs! She makes a lot of pigs and then decides to sell them with her friends, but when people start buying her pigs she discovers that she's too emotionally attached to her pigs to sell them. So instead she gives lessons on how to make pigs. At the end of the book there is a little pattern that teaches you how to make a stuffed pig.

Like the first book it rhymes nicely and like the first book, the illustrations are very expressive and energetic. Great series.

Sophie’s Masterpiece: A Spider’s Tale by Eileen Spinelli

 Sophie the spider goes out into the world to do something great, to create a masterpiece. She settles herself in this boarding house and attempts to help out the people who live there, but none of them accept her gifts and scream at the sight of her. Sophie eventually finds a new mother who doesn't scream at the sight of her, but welcomes her. The mother is poor though and Sophie sees an old blanket covering the mother's baby. Sophie decides to make a new blanket for the baby, her masterpiece.

The pictures are beautiful and the story touching. A great addition to the bookshelf.

Ish by Peter H. Reynolds

 This was a cute book about a little boy who loves to draw, and he draws quite a bit. One day his brother looks at his drawings and says that it doesn't look like what he was trying to draw. The boy looks at it again and agrees with his brother and he gets mad. I forget if he keeps drawing or not, but at one point he crumples up his 'last drawing' in frustration and swears to never draw again. His sister grabs the drawing and runs to her room. He chases her and when he goes in her room he sees all of his drawings. He asks why she kept them as they don't look anything like what they're supposed to, a vase. She replies, 'Well it looks vase-ish'. He looks around and agrees that it does look vase- ish. and continues drawing. 

The guy's drawings don't have to be perfect. He draws because he loves it, not because he wants to make perfect pictures. It's sweet.

The Little Mermaid by Charles Santore

 This was the first little mermaid story I was aware of. I'm not really a fan of Disney because they alter the stories, among other things, and so in retrospect I thank my mother for getting me this book when I was young. The story is beautiful and the pictures are as beautiful as the story. This is my standard for the little mermaid story and to date all other renditions I've read have been sub-par in comparison.

Lady Cottington’s Fairy Album by Brian Froud

I simply adore this book! It was my first book by this author and it was worth every penny, and then some. 

It is a wonderful story about a young girl and her fairies. The narrator is a young girl who keeps a journal, but this girl is special in that she is constantly pestered by meddlesome faeries. She doesn't like that they bug her all the time so every so often she'll smack her journal closed on one, pressing it's image into the pages. There is a touching story in there some where, but I won't wreck it for you, you'll have to go read it. 

It's a light, fun book. It picks me up whenever I am feeling down and entertains me whenever I'm feeling bored. It is undoubtedly one of the best books I own. 

 

Brian Froud’s Goblins by Ari Berk

This is a fun book. It kind of reminds me of the Spiderwick Chronicles a bit in that it's a collection of goblin data, not so much from a mythological perspective, but from a fantastical perspective. Unlike other works by Froud, the goblins have play a more vocal role. It brings a sense of fun to the book... but at the same time it looses a bit of what the previous books like faeries or the cottington series had. It's more jeuvenile than mythological, but the message gets across and it keeps it fun.
 
It wasn't as good as the other stuff, but was still pretty great.