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.

[claraschu]

Laura Ingalls Wilder
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (not for kids, but I loved it when I was 13)
I adored Cowslip A Slave (or other title SLave Girl) by Betsy Haynes- fantastic book about a very strong slave girl- wonderful story which I loved when I was about 8 and older
Island of the Blue Dolphins
The Silver Sword

Other people have mentioned:
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler
The Ramona Books - wonderful
A Little Princess - on of my absolute favourite books and my kids loved it too
The Secret Garden

[haverhill]

For young adults The Sterkham Handshake is excellent.

[haverhill]

The Ingo series by Helen Dunmore is focused on a strong young girl.

I’ll shut up now

[PhilODox]

The Hilda series by Luke Pearson

[BlooperReel]

The Goth Girl books are good for 8/9/10 year olds.

The Paperbag princess for younger kids, my 4 year old loves the story.

[MipMipMip]

Love Divergent but the last one, Alligent, was a bit rubbish. Very disappointing.

[DidimusStench]

A Series of Unfortunate Events

[DidimusStench]

Oh and Philip Ridley has great strong female lead characters

[SeaEagleFeather]

Could this thread be moved to Books, OP?

[actualpuffins]

I think most children's and young adult books have a strong female lead these days. In fact, often unrealistically so, as if they have no weaknesses whatsoever. Makes me want to read about someone who is wimpy and a bit crap at times.

[TheNoodlesIncident]

I loved Rumer Godden's books when I was a kid. She had lots of strong female characters, the heroines often called Olivia - I loved that name as a child when nobody else seemed to consider it. An Episode of Sparrows, The Greengage Summer, The Diddakoi - so many great and readable stories. The people are realistic as well, you can easily relate to the way they respond to events and each other.

She also wrote a lot of great novels for adults, as did Nina Bawden, who wrote alternately children's then adults' novels. Carrie's War is a good read. You might also try:

Your Friend Rebecca - Linda Hoy
The Middle of The Sandwich - Tim Kennemore
The Hand Me Down Kid - Francine Pascal
Marianne Dreams - Catherine Storr

All featuring some great girls dealing with crappy situations.

[SoHairyAndForeverSpartacus]

I don't know if it's actually suitable for teens, and it's been a long time since I read them. But the Indigo series by Louise Cooper is brilliant. My younger brother also read and thoroughly enjoyed them!

It's eight books, in which the lead character goes from being a princess to saving the world by killing demons she had accidentally released. And transforms her along the way. The ending is just perfect to me.

[actualpuffins]

I love Ottoline and Goth Girl.

[MipMipMip]

I'll ask SeaEagel.

[MipMipMip]

I've added Indigo to my wishlist SoHairy.

[LornaMumsnet]

Ask and ye shall receive.

[Sgtmajormummy]

Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson. Mindblowingly good and one they’ll come back to at about 17 and appreciate even more if they’re scientifically minded.
Read it before the film comes out.

[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.

[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.

[MipMipMip]

Cheers Lorna.

[SeaEagleFeather]

yay! thanks.

This thread is a very expensive one.

[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!

[CaptainKirkssparetupee]

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

[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/

[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.