SHANNON HALE

Writes a Book for Everyone to Read

by Melissa Fales

Shannon Hale’s new picture book, This Book is Not for You, takes aim at the notion that boys and girls can both enjoy books with male protagonists, but books featuring female main characters are only suitable for girls to read. The New York Times bestselling and Newbery Honor author uses humor to make the point that there is no such thing as a “boy book” and a “girl book.” She sets the scene with a boy excited about the arrival of the bookmobile. “The regular bookmobile lady is away, and her substitute has different ideas about who can read which books,” says Hale. “When Stanley wants to check out a book that sounds interesting to him, the bookmobile man lets him know that it’s about a girl and suggests he can’t read that since he’s a boy. And then, silliness ensues.”

Hale’s lifelong love of storytelling made her an ideal candidate to become an author. She’s been writing stories since they were assigned by her fourth-grade teacher, and she quickly became hooked on the practice. “It took 19 years of writing before I got published, but I’d still write stories even if it wasn’t my job,” Hale says. 

Hale didn’t set out to be a children’s author; it just happened. “My first novel I wrote for myself, really, and I was an adult at the time, so I thought it was for adults,” she explains. “But when I found an agent, she let me know about the young adult book market that had grown tremendously since I was a teen. I read a lot of young adult books and thought, I’ve found my home.” Hale’s interests have evolved over time to tend toward even littler ones. “As I started having kids and reading children’s books to them, my storytelling brain bent more and more to stories for younger ages,” she says. 

Hale’s writing career took off in 2003, with the publication of The Goose Girl, her take on the Brothers Grimm classic and the first installment of her acclaimed Books of Bayern series. In 2006, she released Princess Academy, a Newbery Honor winner and New York Times bestseller. In total, Hale has written 40 books, with a number of titles for each of the major age groups. This fall, look for Diana and Nubia, Princesses of the Amazons, her new graphic novel with DC Comics, written with her husband, Dean Hale. “It’s a sequel to our first book starring Princess Diana, the girl who will grow up to be Wonder Woman,” she says. 

Despite her success as an author, Hale says she’s been told repeatedly that the books she writes are not appropriate for boys to read. “At first I felt sad,” she says. “I read many, many books by men about male characters. Was what I wrote not ‘good enough’ for boys because I’m a woman? Then I just accepted it for a time as ‘the way things are.’ But more and more I learned it was the result of cultural bias, and that made me angry! The bias was actually harming kids, both boys and girls as well as non-binary kids, and that made me want to fight for change.”

Hale is hoping she’ll change some minds with This Book Is Not for You. The book stars Stanley, a boy who waits eagerly for every Bookmobile Day. “He lives in the country on a farm where there are no stores or bookshops for miles,” says Hale. “Bookmobile Day is when he can choose a story that will allow him to see new places and meet new people.” But this time, the bookmobile worker denies Stanley’s choice, a book about a girl who fights pirates, calling it a “girl book” written only for girls. After all, as Hale suggests with tongue-in-cheek, everyone knows that books about robots are only for robots and books about cats are only for cats. Stanley disagrees and decides to stand up for himself, insisting that he be allowed to read the “girl book.” 

Hale says she admires the illustrations created for This Book Is Not for You by Tracy Subisak. “I love her thick ink lines and the beautiful watercolors,” Hale says. “And I love how her images make me feel. I want to crawl into the image of the kids and animals all reading on the grass under a chestnut tree. Looks like heaven.” While Hale says This Book Is Not for You doesn’t have a specific message for readers, she believes that her point is clear. “I prefer to let readers take away their own messages from my books, but certainly my belief that kids do best when allowed to read freely and widely is reflected in the story.”

The idea for This Book Is Not for You came from an op-ed piece Hale penned for the Washington Post called “What Are We Teaching Boys When We Discourage Them from Reading Books About Girls?” She is passionate about gender equality and is particularly interested in the topic of gender and reading. Hale hopes This Book Is Not for You will shine a spotlight on how ludicrous it is to suggest that only stories about men have universal appeal. “I’ve spent almost 20 years witnessing firsthand the bias and understanding the consequences,” she says. “If boys are shamed away from learning empathy for half the human race, what kind of men do they grow into? How will their actions affect all the non-men in their lives? I believe in the power of reading and the power of stories. And I believe that tearing down the walls shutting kids out from understanding people different from them can have profoundly positive results.”

For more information about Shannon Hale and her books, visit shannonhale.com.