Chilren's Book Analysis

Title: How to get married by Me, The Bride.

Author: Sally Lloyd-Jones and Sue Heap

Year of Publication: 2009

Description of the Book:  This is a story about a young girl telling her friends about who a person can marry and what can happen when you marry certain people or even a pet.

The characters in this book are not real-life looking. They are caricatures. The main character is a blonde haired girl. The girl who is reading the story to her friends is sitting on the sofa with long fluffy, colorful, lacey dress, and purple stockings with pink shoes. One of the boys has on glasses and has very white skin. The other boy has dark skin and curly short hair. The baby has white skin and has a blanket over its head. The girl sitting on the floor in front of the main character has very dark skin and straight ear length hair with a plaid dress, with stripped stockings and no shoes.

This analysis is to determine Racism and Sexism used in children books. In this story the pictures of the children are somewhat stereotypical with the type of clothing the children are wearing and the images. The faces of the children all appear to have features of a white child, yet their skin; hair and clothing appear to be somewhat typical of different cultures. The children who are listening to the girl reading the story appear to be in subservient roles as the boys are behind the sofa and the black girl is on the floor in front of the white girl. The illustrations portray the white girl as the dominant character as she tells of what will happen if you marry a certain person, a thing or even a pet. There are several pictures that show that a white girl has more than a black child which is stereotypical thinking. For example, the white girl is standing next to a house that has two stories, six windows and a large door into the house. Next to her stands the dark skinned boy, with the baby. They are inside a small type house that looks like a box. This image suggests that the white girl has a fancy house, while the dark skinned boy lives in a little tiny house that is a box. In this story the author gives examples of who a person can marry. Many of the examples are absured and would give a child a false sense of who they are and if they meet the requirements for someone to marry them. For example there is a picture of the white girl and the black boy along with the baby sitting on a sofa. The black boy has a birds nest in his hair; he’s wearing his pajamas and has food all over his clothing and his face. He’s smiling but he looks awful. The white girl is sitting on the side arm of the sofa with a surprised look on her face. The words to this picture are very demining and hurtful. It reads, “BASICALLY, NO ONE WILL MARRY YOU IF: You wear old pajamas and slippers in the middle of the day, you don’t ever take a bath, you don’t ever brush your hair and it looks like a birds nest, you dribble your dinner down your chin.” This type of wording could be very harming to a child’s self-esteem causing them to think that if they are poor and dirty they would not be worthy enough to marry. The main character continues to be the dominant character and is special. As the story continues it goes through seineriors of who a person can marry and not marry. It shows each of the children in different situations with written words that indicate a negative reaction if you marry that person. For example, its states that you can marry a cat, but you have to let it lick your face, you can’t marry someone to tall or too big cause they won’t fit in your house, you can marry your teacher but she will make you do homework.

There are pictures showing girls in helpless circumstances needing to be recused from a boy. The white girl is on her knees begging the boy to marry her, saying “Can I marry you please,” as she offers the boy cookies, a toy and a golden ring. This type of language is bribery and suggests that you have to give away your things in order for someone to marry you. After the wedding the book tells of what married people are required to do after the wedding. The lists of requirements are very stereotypical and would lead a child feeling that they have no choices in life. That they must follow what society says following a marriage. For example it states: “Get some children (maybe) and some pets(definitely), live in a house on a hill by a little stream, watch the sun go down, go along holding hands, and live happily ever after. These words are very stereotypical of what Americans believe to be the American dream of getting married, which ultimately set people up for failure as we all know life does not happen that way and our children need to have the facts when it comes to choosing a partner.

This book has some wonderful colorful drawings of children and animals. However when it comes to the wording and how the children are portrayed, it shows racism and sexism. The white girl is the star of the show and is never dressed any differently, she has to beg and bribe a boy to marry her. The black girl is dressed poorly with no shoes and her she’s wears a jumper, she also has straight black hair and her facial features appear to be that of a white person. The black boy is often dirty, angry, and running away from the white girl. The end of the story has a very stereotypical phase that implies that when you marry you will live happily ever after. This statement needs to be removed from our children’s books as we all know that happily ever after is just words and can give children false hopes for their future.

In conclusion I would not recommend for this book to be in any child’s library, at home or at school. The children are not actually portrayed as themselves. It shows one child to be superior and the other children to be less likeable. It implies that girls can marry a pet, a teacher, their daddy and even more than one person. It gives children ideas of who is unmarrable, such as being dirty, poor, dressed badly and if you eat all the candy. Many of the pictures imply that the white girl is searching and searching until she finally finds someone to marry her and then she has to get down on her knees while the boy sits on a chair in front of her and she gives away her things and he’s say yes. This book is racist and sexist in its words and in its pictures.