Fantasy books with girls/women as the main character?

Yseabeau Wilce Flora series has a fab feisty heroine and is just amazingly inventive and original. Although maybe a bit old? I love Tiffany Aching but also thought she'd be good reading for someone at the upper end of the 9-12 bracket rather than lower. Also Ellen Renner, Castle of Shadows. Has anyone said a Wrinkle in Time yet?

Definitely Joan Aiken!

I would second more Diana Wynne Jones - Dogsbody, The Spellcoats and The Crown of Dalemark (though it's best to read the other Dalemark books first) and especially Fire & Hemlock; also the Mortal Engines series and its prequels which have strong female central characters.

Incarceron and Sapphique by Catherine Fisher are excellent fantasy books with strong characters.

Oh, can't believe I forgot Zoe Marriott -- she writes very good young adult books which all have strong female leads. The Swan Kingdom would probably be fine for a 9yo, but her others from memory are perhaps better in a couple of years.

I started to really dislike the Nightingale Floor series, thought they got very iffy on the sex/violence front and stopped reading half way through the last one (very very unusual for me).

Sounds like your 9 year old reads lots of great stuff Takver! I'd second the recommendation for Tamora Pierce, especially the Wild Magic series, and perhaps suggest Joan Aiken too (not quite fantasy, but not far off really).

Ooh I've just remembered another FAB one.

The series begins with Across The Nightingale Floor and they are sort of pseudo Japanese warrior novels with a couple of really strong female characters. DD1 read them aged around ten but there is a lot of gore and a lot of sex, both hetero and homosexual. Tbh she said she just skimmed over those bits!

I totally recommend them to anybody who likes well-written fantasy, as opposed to a lot of the crap out there.

Robin McKinley writes fantasy which is mostly marketed in the YA sector. Two that your dd would probably love are 'The Hero and the Crown' - which won the Carnegie medal, and 'The Blue Sword'. Dragonhaven is also suitable for a younger reader, I think. They are books I read as an adult, but would have devoured had they been written when I was 9!

Some of her later books would most definately NOT be suitable for a 9 year old, so you would need to pre-screen (Sunshine and Deerskin, especially).

On her website, there is a section called 'Pollyanna's booklist' which covers a lot of book recommendations here. I found a whole lot of new authors there.

I read a fair bit of Andre Norton when I was 9 - I remember 'The Beastmaster' in particular. Again, you would need to pre-screen.

Maybe - I wonder if DD is too young for that even at 13 but he never got past bk1

Anne McCaffrey 'The ship who sang' series is good plus PTB (but maybe not yet about to start DD 13 on PTB)

What is wrong with Mercedes Lackey? DD read Arrows a couple of years ago

And as a Le Guin fan, Takver, what would you recommend? (Hijack)

Oh she hasn't read Tehanu - that one's a bit hard going. But worth it if you read the later ones too.

Takver - Tales from earthsea (short stories) has stories about how women's power was suppressed and sets the scene for how the patriachy had to come to terms with not being the only power there is. The other wind completes the story of Tehanu. (Our library doesn't have "the furthest shore" for some reason so I don't know how that one relates.) Having never read Le Guin before I am extremely impressed. I think they are very readable. If your DD managed Tehanu (which is quite grim, I think) I think she'll enjoy the others more.

There's a few Chrestomanci and other Diana Wynne Jones books with female protagonists, but mainly out of print ones. Dogsbody has a female main character with a dog who is actually an incarnation of the star Sirius.

There's always Alice in Wonderland/Through the looking-glass?

Neil Gaiman's Coraline qualifies but personally I found it terrifying!

The Sword and Sorceress anthologies (originally edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley) have some great stories, although perhaps for when she's a bit older as levels of sex and violence vary.

Did she read the later Earthsea books? There is certainly a big shift to the female characters.

Yes to The Looking Glass Wars.

Wheel of Time series is good but I think a 9 yr old would find it hard work, there are many characters and plot lines to follow.

The Cat Royal books by Julia Golding are excellent, not fantasy but great adventures and Cat is a fantastic protagonist!

I second Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen. They're worth a look. Also he does another series, The Seventh Tower, which has a boy and girl who are pretty equal, and in fact the girl is a lot better at everything.

The Looking Glass Wars is good, but quite dark.

Wheel of Time is good - it's actually set in mainly female dominated societies. The books are quite dense though.

Not just Tiffany Aching for TP, some of the discworld books have women starring - Monstrous Regiment is great. The witches books (same witches for TA series) are great as well. And the Susan books - Thief of Time, Hogfather, Soul Music - off the top of my head.