Kids books with strong female leads

[MipMipMip]

After reading a thread in FWR I've realised how many books have stereotypical women in them. Not something we want kids growing up with! So I thought I'd start a thread for books where girls and women rebel against their conditioning and show their strength of all kinds. Obviously strong males can be in there too, the ideal is both.

Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer (Her daughter!) Between The Lines: an outcast teen girl loves fairy tales and realises the handsome Prince in one is real. So she sets out to rescue him.

Eva Ibbotson on Journey To The River Sea: a Victorian(ish) girl gets sent to live with unpleasant relatives in the Amazon. She continues the facade of being girly but prefers to explore and make friends with locals. Ends up sailing off with a male friend to escape. There's also a strong male, a very strong governess and a male who is afraid of everything but is still a good friend.

[Popcicle123]

Placemarking for later

[bookmum08]

... decent boy characters. The end got garbled there.

Other girls -
Minnie the Minx and Toots.

[bookmum08]

Jacqueline Wilson's historical books - Hetty Feather, Opal Plumstead, Wave Me Goodbye. Infact pretty much any JW.
Ramona Quimby series.
Daisy and the trouble with series.

Infact I find it harder to find books with decent boy characteTheyThey

[mynameisnotmichaelcaine]

The Land of Neverending by Kate Saunders (I think). Every child (and adult) should read it.

[MipMipMip]

Don't worry Kateandme, we're all old enough on here to judge age appropriateness. And that one sounds appropriate for me.

[kateandme]

oh god ive just totally f* up this thread.these are obviously not for young people!

[kateandme]

james Patterson has his whole womans murder club series too.

[kateandme]

Karin slaughter.the grant country series I think and the another one have some very leading lady characters.

[DancelikeEmmaGoldman]

Libby Hathorn's Thunderwith is an absolutely wonderful book about a young girl coming to terms with her world turning upside down.

For slightly older girls, Spoiled and Messy by Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks (who write the Fug Girls blog), are laugh out loud funny and full of intelligent girls muddling through adolescence.

The Edge series by Patricia Wrede (not the Ilona Andrews series), which starts with Thirteenth Child are excellent, as is her Mairelon the Magician series and her Sorcery and Cecelia books written by her alter ego Carolyn Stevermer.

The Tiggy Tompson trilogy by Tessa Duder are non-fantasy about a 14 year old girl who has self-esteem issues, a famous mother and a friend with an unpleasant secret. I enjoyed them a lot.

[haribosmarties]

Oh and another of my faves was The Mennyms by Sylvia Waugh

Absolutely loved the character Appleby and I guess shes a rag doll not human but she is female!

[haribosmarties]

Agree with pp about Tamora Pierce. I loved her books as a young girl!

Also Philip Pullman.

The Borrowers by Mary Norton
A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I mean they will all be quite dated now but imo they are classics so hopefully will still be enjoyed?

[Theweasleytwins]

The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix
Strong female leads

Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer- Holly is a strong female fairy (like badass fairy not lives in a mushroom house)

[CaptainKirkssparetupee]

Can not and*

[CaptainKirkssparetupee]

MipMipMip



It was an enjoyable read, not too patronising either.
Some times books for younger teenagers and dumb things down too much.

[MipMipMip]

I can confirm that The Treatment is very good. Kindle had it at 99p so I've just read and enjoyed it. Interesting information on brainwashing techniques. And love some of the highly original names- big boobed video game character Zara Fox and evil home secretary Nigel Johnson!

[soupforbrains]

The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell is my DS's absolutely most favourite book ever (at the moment) he's 11 and a strong reader. it's a lovely book and features an awesome female lead.

[PineapplePower]

I think most books I read as a child had strong female leads! Definitely not hard to find. My suggestions?

I Capture the Castle is such a charming book narratived by a witty girl. It’s a period novel set in the 30s, but the girls in the novel deal with the hand the hand they are given in really admirable ways. Highly recommended for girls who love Jane Austen-type books.

I also really like Homecoming by Cynthia Voight. It deals with a lot of difficult issues like mental illness, homelessness and family breakdown. The protagonist is a teenage girl who needs to keep her siblings together in face of adversity. She’s so steely and tough, and I still remember that she was described in the book as looking like a boy, which was pretty cool and also quite rare when it was published.

[InterstellarSleepingElla]

I haven't yet read through the thread so apologies if I am repeating anything someone has already posted.

A couple of books I really enjoy for little ones are Interstella Cinderella and Not all Princess wear pink. My 3 year old loves them.

Mighty Girls is a fabulous resource for books, activities, etc. It lists books for all ages and both stories on actual real amazing women in history and fictional books with strong female characters.

[FluctuatNecMergitur]

I was tangentially involved in this huge Europe-funded project on positive gender role models in children's books, which will certainly be of interest: g-book.eu/

[CaptainKirkssparetupee]

The Treatment by C.L Taylor
It's about a girl who infiltrates a brain washing reform school to rescue her brother.

[thereisalwaysmorehope]

Some recently published ones:

Wolf Wilder Set in Russia with a great female lead.

Goodly and Grave a series of magical mysteries with a heroine who is unconventional and strong.

The House With Chiicken Legs another strong heroine, although be warned there is a lot about death in the story!

[SeaEagleFeather]

yay! thanks.

This thread is a very expensive one.

[MipMipMip]

Cheers Lorna.

[Pinklady11]

Gone With the Wind. Scarlett is deeply flawed but if anyone took life and by complete force of will made it what she wanted. It's a shockingly racist book to read now, but in other ways it was quite enlightened for its time (from a feminist perspective). And the characterisation -of the white characters- is superb. Understand it's controversial though.

[GrainneWail]

I don't think anyone has mentioned Breaking the Surface by Louise O'Neill yet. It's for an older teen, but a retelling of the Little Mermaid - the Hans Christian Anderson one, not the Disney one. I've just finished it and really liked it.