Boys and Girls ─ Superheroes in the Doll Corner

In Boys and Girls, Vivian Paley recreates a year of kindergarten teaching in which she explored the differences in the way children play and fantasize. With either swords or tiaras in hand, the children vociferously declare themselves as either boys or girls, and in doing so work through complex and subtle notions of gender identity, both inwardly and outwardly. Weaving her own observations into the narrative of the children’s conversations, stories, playacting, and scuffling, Paley documents the youthful search for self-definition and at the same time lays bare the biases, values, and assumptions that so many of us hold concerning gender roles for children. Her work changed the dialogue in education and childhood development about the importance of play and fantasy in the development of children’s identities. This edition features a new preface by the author and an afterword by Susan Engel.