CAVE GIRL’S BIG IDEA

A destructive storm eventually helps Cave Girl create the home of her dreams.

Cave Girl has everything a prehistoric girl could want, like parents who “rock” and a pet snake. There’s just one thing she can’t stand…living in a cave. It’s too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. She’s inspired to build her own place when she sees two beavers making a dam, but her parents ignore her excitement—to her frustration. When a massive storm destroys the cave, however, the family must find a new home. All the other caves are taken, so Cave Girl shows her parents how they can build the perfect home. Though the story of a young girl achieving her goals might otherwise have been empowering, it’s overshadowed by the depiction of a brown-skinned family as “primitive.” They live in a dank, bat-ridden cave, sport animal-skin pelts, wear bones as accessories, and speak broken English; Cave Girl’s mother has a ring through her nose, while Cave Girl’s curly, Afro-textured hair is ornamented with little bones—details that evoke outdated and offensive portrayals of so-called “uncivilized” peoples. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Rooted in stereotype, this tale should be left back in the Stone Age.