parents of girls 6-10- come over here and let me pick your brains a minute

I second the 'Sophie' books by Dick King Smith (in fact, a lot of his stuff is good).

What about Roald Dahl's Matilda? Main character is a girl and definitely not an overly girly one.

feck i thought Carbonel was a cat.

It's true about the moomins being a bit too male (moominmamma is too fussily maternal), and Carbonel is a boy, and so is Calidor, what about Joan Aitkin - Arabel's raven, and (in a couple of years) the Willoughby chase series - my 8yo loves those.

Mrs Pepperpot, Heidi, Family from one end street, Milly molly mandy, the Bullerby children all have feisty females in. but it's true they mostly fall down on a strict feminist analysis.

We tend to read books along with an ongoing feminist diatribe (from me) in the background, so we accept that many of the older classics are sexist/racist/classist/imperialist etc but we critique as we go. Otherwise there really wouldn't be much left.

Lotta says No

Happy Times in Noisy vilage

both by Astrid Lingren from Amazon.

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Smallest Girl in the World by Sally Gardner

Because of Winn Dixie

Carbonel

Also, Books 5-8 by Dorothy Butler (I always urge people to get this-it's fab).

The moomin cartoons have just been republished in strip format- are moomins acceptable?

Are some boys allowed? Cami-Cazi (sp?) in the Hiccup the viking books is one of my favourite heroines ever - she doesn't feature in the earliest books, but she is a big player in the later ones. They are definitely adventure/fantasy books (author Cressida Cowell).

Although they are formulaic, I would say that the Animal Ark books are much better than the Rainbow fluffy fairy stuff, and the main character is a girl, though her best friend who also features heavily is a boy.

Anna Hibiscus (author Atinuke), which I've mentioned on here before, is about a little girl who lives in Africa - definitely funny and contemporary - though perhaps more realistic than you're after? (Animal Ark is also realistic, not magic etc.)

Not quite contemporary, but Ramona the Brave & the other Ramona books (can't remember author) might also hit the spot (again realistic).

At the bottom of your age range the Sophie books (author Dick King Smith?) are fabulous - little girl who wants to be a farmer and is completely un-faze-able.

you know, the magic/fairy/unicorn/whatever phase doesn't last that long .... with dd it was over in a few weeks as even at 5 and 6 she recognised that the books were all very samey ... you can just steer them in the direction of Roald Dahl, Dick King-Smith, Jeremy Strong etc and refuse to read them formulaic stuff - with the added benefit that they'll want to read it to themselves

For a 6 year old, maybe Olga da polga, Moomintroll, Humphrey the hamster (though he is male, but my dds like him), Sophie's snail/tom/pony series. My Naughty little sister.

Then there are lots of good books for slightly older girls. Pippi Longstocking is an obvious one, but many of the older classics aren't about pink girly girls - Swallows and Amazons, E Nesbit, Noel Streatfield. Jacqueline Wilson. Anne Fine. Clarice Bean. Joan Aitkin.