No problem Book

Stumbled across this wonderful book in a classic case of shelving serendipity (this is something we librarians have a lot of experience with). I was shelving books in the children's area last week and happened to shelve a book right next to this title. The cover made its siren call to my bookish heart, and I plucked it off the shelf and read it during my lunch break. I was immediately swooning.

Although No Problem follows the structure of so many other picture books, it has something very few other picture books have: an all-female cast of animal characters (and females who build things!). Unlike many picture book illustrators who use bows, dresses, and eyelashes to designate female animal characters, these illustrations have none of that sexist nonsense. And this is remarkable. Take it from a bookworm and librarian of about ten years who loves picture books and animal stories.

It's also interesting to note that in the Goodreads summary for this book, Mouse is described as male. She is not. Sexism? An innocent mistake? It's hard to say, but so often do we humans use "he" to describe animals that I'm pretty sure it's sexism and not a typo. (The librarian in me compelled me to address this mistake.)

Animals dominate picture books. Animals are all the rage for young readers and animal picture books circulate like crazy. This is not always a good thing. All-animal (well, non-human animal) stories inherently lack representation. Kids cannot necessarily see the human aspects of themselves reflected in animals: skin color, culture, gender identity, and others. And even animals can sometimes reflect the racism, sexism, ableism, etc. of their writers/illustrators. Making a better world through picture books means publishing, promoting, purchasing, and fiercely reading and sharing picture books by poc, indigenous, disabled, LGBTQ+, and neurodivergent authors and illustrators that feature human characters with these identities. It means things I haven't even considered and done as a white person and as a librarian because I realize that I have a lot left to learn and to do with what I learn. What can animal stories contribute to social justice? Not much, perhaps, but there are a few important things, I think, in terms of queerness and, as I talk about here, feminism.

Can animal stories be feminist? Yes, I think so, because if readers can see themselves in animals (as I did as a kid, and continue to do as a person who relates more to animals than to human beings), then yes, definitely. They can't tap deeply into the human experience or address the inequalities and social injustices in the world like stories about people do, but they can still remain resonant to readers, especially if that animal story is not written by a white, straight, able-bodied author. Animal stories can be empowering, but unfortunately the majority of picture books still feature main male animal characters. This is changing, and there are of course examples of female animal characters done right in picture books, but No Problem has something special, and that specialness really shines. The animals just get to be animals without flowers in their hair and bows and dresses and long eyelashes. And they get to be builders too, as the story centers around a group of friends attempting to assemble a machine. Everyone but Shrew attempts to do this without instructions, with hilarious (but inventive) results. Sure, their creations are a little wobbly, a little unwieldy, but it's girls building things! It's a paean to STEM! No Problem highlights the importance of reading instructions but more importantly show a group of girl characters using tools and building a variety of different machines. Eventually, Shrew reads the instructions and assembles the airplane it was intended to be, and the friends fly off together to meet Rat, who sent the bundle of machine parts for them to assemble (just try not to pick apart the logic of all this!). 

While rigid, sexist ways of storytelling remain in picture books it's important for others to offer up a better world to children, a different way of thinking about the world than simply reinforcing old, sexist and binary stereotypes. In No Problem, we have a group of smart, handy, creative, enterprising female critters who totally lack any of the visual references some illustrators use to designate characters as female. These girls use tools and build inventive machines, and they are clever and determined. I can't overstate the importance of books like this for young children (who are probably being read this story) and are already absorbing sexist, binary ways of thinking from the world around them. Here is a book that joyfully pushes over these wall-like ways of thinking and offers up something more truthful and inclusive. It shows not the world those in power want it to be, but the world as it should be.

What's also really cool? This book was originally published in 1993.