Books for a 9 year old girl with female lead characters that aren’t about fairies or cute animals..

Ruby Redford and Murder most unladylike
a is for arsenic

Dido Twite series

there are some german ones, not sure if translations are available:

• die kleine hexe (otfried preussler)
• die rote zora (kurt held)
• momo (michael ende)
• konrad (christine nöstlinger)

and of course from swedish astrid lindgren's pippi longstocking

The Anisha the Accidental Detective series by Serena Patel are good - they are about a ks3 schoolgirl in her normal life with her family, friends (they particularly enjoy science) and rivals, with an occasional fixing of misunderstandings/minor injustices around her.

Sorry, I haven’t read all the responses to check if this has been suggested but Greg James’ books have some great female characters. Kid normal series (based on a boy but he the only one without super powers and all the lead superheroes are women) and his most recent The Great dream robbery, also features women as the brains behind the rescues. I read with my son and will keep for my daughter; great modern and funny books.

janina Ramirez - the archaeologist from the tv! She writes kids books too. I’ve bought these for my niece and she loves them.

The Matilda Effect by Ellie Irving

Scarlet and Ivy series. Be aware they are set in the 1930s though - so there are so issues relating to corporal punishments, asylums, and unmarried mothers being treated badly that you might have to explain

Wolf Girl series by Anh Do, an Australian author. It does involve a lot of dogs, but they are not cutesy dogs but tough, intelligent loyal bad guy fighting dogs. Very strong lead girl too.

The Chalet School books, there are also lots of fill-ins for missing terms & some that write about character's experience of the CS. Lots & lots of books, 62 originals & well over 20 fill ins. Look for Girls Gone By Publishing ones, they are unabridged & often have extra stories in them. You can buy them direct from GGBP or you can sometimes find them on Ebay.

I was going to say the star outside my window by onjali p Rauf but that's about death!

Both Nina Bawden and Rumer Godden wrote some great books with girl protagonists.

Marmalade Atkins is a wonderful heroine- very funny.

I see someone recommended Jane of Lantern Hill by LM Montgomery. I loved that book at about age 10.

The Last Dragonslayer Jasper Fforde
Fly by Night Frances Hardinge
Dragon’s Green Scarlett Thomas
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen Alan Garner (Warning: I love Garner and think he is a fantastic writer but some of his other children’s books are genuinely terrifying)
Authors to consider; Eva Ibbotson, Diana Wynne Jones, Jacqueline Wilson

Oooh yes @Rainbowsew I'd forgotten Susan Cooper's "Dark Is Rising" sequence. They scared the bejesus out of me though, I've got the shivers just thinking about the Mari Llywyd...

Patricia Leitch's Jinny books, if she likes horses. Jinny takes no prisoners. (Neither does her mare Shantih as I recall) - but they're quite environmentally-focussed and spiritual.

Just had a Google, Stevie Day was written by Jacqueline Wilson, well I never, I thought she was much more recent!

The cuckoo sister was another one from the 80s based around girls but may be traumatic as the baby was snatched from a pram and brought up by someone else.

Katherine rundell has already been mentioned and her book the explorer is great! All her other books are similar adventure stuff and all have girl leads.

Beast quest if she likes sci fi as the secondary lead is female and she forms a partnership with Tom to slay weird creatures.

Green witch by Susan cooper is based around the girl in a group of siblings.

I've been revisiting vintage classics this summer. Green smoke by rosemary Manning is a nice story about a girl meeting a dragon and learning the Arthur stories on a beach in Cornwall.

Patricia Finney's Lady Grace Mysteries (they're about a young lady in waiting at the Tudor court who solves mysteries)
Judith Eagle's "The Pear Affair"

Will think of more....

Not up on modern authors, but I had books by Julia Jarman called "when Poppy ran away" & "Poppy and the vicarage ghost" she was a good female character who got in scrapes with girls friends.

Also vintage 70s/80s but the turbulent term of tike tyler is good too, don't tell her the twist at the end where tyke is a girl, stereotypes lead you to believe tike is a boy. And in a similar vein I recall some with a character called Stevie Day but can't remember the author, but they may be too dated for her.

Is she to old for the worst witch?

If you want a good read for your 8 year old plus then have a look at www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B099C52VDJ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_1DJ6KFG39SVVWGBQZTBQ?tag=mumsnetforu03-21
Thank you.

If you can find a 2nd hand copy, try A Book of Princesses by Sally Patrick Johnson. It's a collection of fairy stories, some well known and some not so, but none of the princesses are the typical damsel in distress. The Light Princess & The Long Nosed Princess are two of my favourites.

Maybe a bit dated but the Scrambled Legs were good, it’s about a shit ballet group who hate ballet