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.

Casson family, not Cassie!

Betsy-Tacy, Pippi Longstocking, Capurnia Tate, the Borrowers.
Think I will go to bed now!

Oh gosh you're quite right @NastyCats - I was thinking of the Earthsea books at the time and got mixed up. Tenar, Tehanu and Orm Irian are great female characters and Le Guin's exploration of gender issues through the lens of Earthsea is fascinating.

Oh and Garth Nix’s Sabriel trilogy.

Nevermoor - Morigan Crow.

the Emily series both by LM Montgomery. Emily doesn't fit in to the traditional role of a young girl in Canada at the turn of the century. She values an education and is fiercely independent.

Abela by Berlie Doherty.
A story of the contrast in the lives of two young girls, one in the UK and one from Africa

Not read either but Neil Gaiman Coraline and The Sleeper and the Spindal. Heard good things about both.

I hope young boys are reading these too, we want them to see girls can be anything as well.

Controversial but can I recommend Horrid Henry on this thread.

Yes the two main characters are boys, but the relationship between the Mum and Dad is an excellent role model of shared parental care, eg Dad makes the packed lunches, Mum’s boss comes over for dinner with her husband etc etc.

I follow a page called a mighty girl on Facebook, which is full of great suggestions for girls of all ages; fiction, history, self help style books and feminism. American, but I’ve used it a lot for my girls growing up.
www.amightygirl.com/?https=true

books for kids of any age or just teens?

"rebel against conditioning" is kind of weird criteria.
Catniss Everdeen was very conditioned to be tough as nails, she was only expressing exactly what she was conditioned to be.

Heather in Panic is a better role model to me, as rebel against conditioning. I know why the caged bird sings a good non-fiction example.

A lot of the JWilson books, the girls are conditioned to be one way but find a lot of inner strength to deal with stressful situations.

The Rangers Apprentice series has a good mix of female and male characters

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler by E L Konigsberg.
Older sister forms a plan and chooses a younger brother to run away with. They go to live in the Metropolitan museum of Art in New York and solve a mystery.
The children are rational and determined problem solvers and learn lots about the items in the museum.

The Ruby Redfort series by Lauren Child. My daughter loves them.

Also love Tamara Pierce, I'm particularly a fan of the Trickster's Duet. The Circle books are also good, with a few lesbian characters for good measure. (Especially because the fact that they are lesbian is by the by, rather than a central feature of their character.)

The skulduggery pleasant books and the demon road books by Derek Landy.

The hunger games.

The Divergent Trilogy.

Jacqueline Wilson books all have strong girls in difficult situations.

8-12yrs any of katherine rundell's books - page turners and nothing like as depressing as jacqueline wilson's oeuvre.

For really little kids I like Maisy Mouse books.

llykk phrase it however you prefer and for any age (ideally to be read by both boys and girls). It's just intended to be a small resource for parents/grandparents/aunts/teachers/anyone else.

I keep coming back to this list of Books for Bold Girls when I'm looking for presents for friends and relatives.

Only clicked into this to recommend Derek Landy, but Dextro has beaten me to it! They're amazing, funny, and Valkyrie is a strong character.

Ronja the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren. Also Pippi Longstocking as already mentioned.

Two of my favourite books from my childhood (though both were written many decades before that):

Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (I think it was published as Betsy in the UK). A young girl raised by well-meaning but overprotective relatives goes to live with some cousins in Vermont. She overcomes her fears and becomes strong and self-reliant.

Sensible Kate by Doris Gates. A girl who longs to be pretty or cute has resigned herself to being just “sensible.” A really lovely book about a lonely girl who finds a home among people who love her for herself.

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. Young teen really. She writes a lot of strong heroines, well worth a read.

YA fiction is amazing at the moment - some of my favourite heroines have been created in the last few years.

My favourites:

Divergent - Veronica Roth
Throne of Glass - Sarah J Maas
An Ember in the Ashes - Sabaa Tahir
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones - Cassandra Clare
Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo
Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo
Daughter of Smoke and Bone - Laini Taylor
Flame in the Mist - Renee Ahdieh
Daughter of the Pirate King - Tricia Levenseller

The series by O.R. Melling which starts with The Hunter’s Moon. The second book The Lightbearer’s Daughter has a fantastically strong, resourceful lead character who’s a 12 year old girl.