I never thought about the gender ratio before, but you're absolutely right; it's highly unusual, and it means there isn't "the girl", in a way that I can't think of even many modern children's books doing. (Lewis has generally even gender ratios among his main characters, but also other problems liek woah. I feel Pullman tends to "other" his female characters in that the most prominent ones, but I'd have to go back and read more of his work to analyse why I feel that.)
I also find it interesting how the books feature an absence of fathers but not an absence of male role models; both Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Blackett essentially operate as single mothers for most of the series, but Captain Flint, Jim Brading, and others provide positive adult male role models. It removes a common YA focus on father/offspring relationships (often at the expense of the mother) without removing adult men from the picture, in a way which books that fridge mothers don't usually do with adult women.
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Date: 2008-09-07 09:04 am (UTC)I also find it interesting how the books feature an absence of fathers but not an absence of male role models; both Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Blackett essentially operate as single mothers for most of the series, but Captain Flint, Jim Brading, and others provide positive adult male role models. It removes a common YA focus on father/offspring relationships (often at the expense of the mother) without removing adult men from the picture, in a way which books that fridge mothers don't usually do with adult women.