Books with strong girl characters?

[Flojo99]

I'm trying to find inspiring books for my 2yo daughter. Very few seem to have strong female lead characters - it just seems to be princesses that don't really do anything practical. My son had Bob the Builder and Fireman Sam and loved them, and as well as them being brilliant stories I liked it that he was learning about things he could be when he grew up.

My daughter isn't that interested in princesses and shows a lot more interest in her brother's books. I'm happy to read them to her, but I don't want her to think it's only boys that have strong practical jobs - and I don't want her to think girls can't be at the centre of things.

Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations?

My husband thinks The Tiger Who Came To Tea is a fictional apologetic cover up for an alcoholic mum who ate all the food in the house after draining the place of "drink". But I still love it.

How about:

For now:
Tatty Ratty - Helen Cooper
Dogs don't do ballet - Anna Kemp
Zoe and Beans - Chloe and Mick Inkpen
The Gruffulo's Child - Julia Donaldson
The Paper Dolls - Julia Donaldson
Rosie's Hat - Julia Donaldson (girl grows up to be a firefighter!)
Topsy and Tim - the modern series; Topsy is lively and outgoing, Tim is quieter

a little later:
Milly-Molly-Mandy (loads of these) - Joyce Lankaster Brisley
Charlie and Lola
The Pirates Next Door - Jonny Duddle
Mrs Pepperpot - Alf Proysen

a bit later still:
Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren
Matilda - Roald Dahl
The Magic Finger - Roald Dahl

also:

for now:
Apple Tree Farm stories - the girl isn't a particularly strong character but Mrs Boot is a farmer, and Mr Boot hardly ever features

a little later:
Katie Morag stories - Mairi Hedderwick (strong girl, also strong Grannie Island who lives alone, farms and drive a tractor)

a little later still:
the Sophie adventures - Dick King-Smith

I agree that for the 2-3 agegroup there aren't so many strong girl characters, but it seems to get a bit better for older ones!

I've just put together a list of books for girls on Riffle which might help:

read.rifflebooks.com/list/171503

These are for slightly older girls, but Lucy Evans, InstaExplorer books are fabulous, and feature a strong female character. (Disclosure: Written by a friend, and edited by me, but do have a look at the impartial reviews on Amazon!)

A couple of friends and I are self-publishing books featuring strong female characters, both fiction and non-fiction. I've written a book about unknown women adventurers, and am planning more along the same lines. The women who've been forgotten by history. Feel free to PM me for a link.

Oh, and I forgot! This blog has a very extensive list of feminist friendly children's literature.

Russell Hoban's Frances books! They are brilliant. So brilliant that my DS2 would have been called Frances if he had been a girl.

Gorilla. By Anthony Browne is a lovely book

Some great ideas on here. I'm reading 'Carbonel' to DD at the moment and Rosemary seems a pretty independent girl (older than your DD).

Oh, also brilliant is 'Ghosts in the House' by Kazuno Kohara - great story of a brilliant little girl with the most beautiful printed illustrations. His 'Jack Frost' is also great for depicting a little boy who has emotions!

Failedspinster, my dc2 would also have been Frances had he been a girl. But we were also very close to picking Gloria!

James Mayhew's 'Katie' series about paintings are fab. Katie goes to the art gallery with her granny who always falls asleep then Katie has lots of adventures in famous paintings. My DDs love it although going to art galleries now involves a lot of 'Only Katie is allowed in the paintings'.

Pirate Gran is good fun, The Bog Baby is charming (and is a story told by a mother to her daughter). Another vote for Katie Morag, the TV show is very good as well. And when she's a bit older the Ottoline books by Chris Riddell are fab. Actually I think once they get onto chapter books things get better because the books are split by gender so much so there's lots of choice if you can be bothered to separate the fairy princess sparkle shite from the good stuff.

Oh, a good Christmas one: The Empty Stocking by Richard Curtis.

Handas surprise and Handas hen. Nick Sharrat has some good ones e.g Super Daisy. In fact he's got a series of books featuring Daisy in non traditional female roles.

Here they are

www.nicksharratt.com/books/kes_gray.html

After Helen Skelton's recent comments I found a page listing their top 9 books for the feminist message, that included Matilda, Olivia, Amazing Grace, Neil Gaiman is credited in particular for 'Wolves in the Walls' and for other strong girl characters. Most are for when she's older. Please see the Hatpeople blog at www.hatpeopleofhatland.com/1/post/2015/05/best-childrens-books-for-the-feminist-message.html

Princess Smartypants.

Quite soon Madeleine.

For later
The secret Garden
A little Princess
The Good Master and The Singing Tree
Mistress Masham's Repose
The Princess and the Goblins
Ballet Shoes
The Diddakoi
Matilda

Yay to Pippi, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Eloise