Book Guide: Come On, Fight!
ISSUES OF CONFLICTS, PROFIT AND LOSS
1. When everyone gets tired at the first practice, it gets rowdy. Why do you think it will be like that? Do you get angry more easily when you're tired? What do you usually do then?
2. Amir is good at taking care of the players in the team. He listens and is caring. Is there someone you like to be with? What makes that person good?
3. "No chain is stronger than its weakest link," says Amanda. What does she mean by that?
4. Amir talks about how important it is to be able to get along and say sorry after a fight. What do you think? What do you usually do after a fight?
5. In the book, Amanda says it's just a practice match. But Charlotte doesn't think it's "just" a training match. For her, it is important - especially to win. Do you think winning is important? How does it feel to win?
6. When Charlotte and the team meet the Danes, they lose. How do you usually feel when you lose something? Do you think it's okay to be sad when you lose? Is it okay to get angry?
QUESTIONS ABOUT PROFESSIONS, HISTORY AND INTERESTS
1. On the boat, the team meets a person who has worked on the lake all his life. What do you think is fun about such work? What do you think could be difficult? What would you like to work on? What seems funny about that?
2. On the boat, Charlotte loses the others. Have you ever gotten lost? How did it feel?
3. Charlotte likes being interviewed on television. Why do you think she does that?
4. Charlotte and her mother think World War II is exciting. Why do you think they are interested in it? Why do you think people are interested in history? What could be good about knowing things about history?
5. Charlotte loves to play soccer. Is there something you love to do?
ABOUT WINNING SKULLS
Finding it important to win and having difficulty dealing with losses in competition and games is a trait that all people can have, regardless of gender identity. But expressing the feelings and acting on them is more socially accepted for those who are boys or men. It is connected to our gender norms and our ideas about masculinity and femininity, where women are expected to have more interest in the collective and to be responsible for the social atmosphere. To only think it's funny when you're at your best and when you win is simply more male-coded. There are of course pros and cons to being a so-called winner, but in the driving force there is also a strength that can help people move forward in life. And how okay or not it is to be a winner should not be governed by whether you are a girl or a boy, and therefore the portrayal of characters like Charlotte who think that the most important thing is to win is needed.
ABOUT THE WORK
Many children obviously don't know what they want to do when they grow up. But what leads us to our career choices has largely to do with gender-based expectations. Through signals from the outside world, children with different gender identities are guided to different types of interests and to practice different skills. The school can be part of breaking patterns and offering more opportunities to all students. Part of opening up opportunities is to make more professions visible than those that are usually allowed to shape a professional life, but also to create new expectations in the connection between gender and profession through shaping. Like in this book where both a woman and a man have their professional lives at sea, as captain and sailor. Another part of supporting children's career choices is starting from desire and interest, like Charlotte, who through all the books about herself expresses and portrays that she wants a life in the world of football.
