Children's fiction with female heros/main characters?

[FlipFantasia]

Hello

I'm looking for books for children with female main characters especially anything that's equivalent to Harry Potter/Artemis Fowl.

Sorry if this is the wrong spot to post in!

TIA

Kelley Armstrong's Darkest Powers series is great, as are any of her books.

I also like the Morganville Vampires

My dd1 has read most of the books mentioned upthread. She's 12 and a voracious reader but I'm aware that I nudge her gently towards books with strong female leads who can look after themselves.

A Little White Horse by Elizabeth Gouge

All Frances Hardinge's books have female heroes. And Rick (Percy Jackson)Riordan's second series is narrated alternately by two siblings, male and female (also "black"/"white" "British"/"American").

Tiffany Aching rocks.

For a younger age group there's Ottoline.

Wildwood by Colin Meloy, as a bonus it's beautifully illustrated by his

• wife.

Oooh second Frances Hardinge's books - wonderfully drawn female characters! This thread is making me want to re-read so many old favourites!

Diana Wynne Jones writes stories about magic which I think must be one of JK Rowling's influences. Lots of hers have strong female characters including:

• Howl's Moving Castle (and there is a Studio Ghibli film), which has Sophie as main character, and she's awesome.

• The Spellcoats. If your DD likes something a bit more slow-paced, there are also four books set in a fictional world with magic, which are utterly brilliant. You don't have to read them in order and The Spellcoats (technically I think the third?) has a lovely heroine called Tanaqui.

• The Derkholm books. The main character of the first is male (though plenty of strong female characters), and the main character of the second is female. This one is probably closest to JK Rowling, as it's set in a university (though a very school-y university and written for children) where magic is taught.

• A Tale of Time City.

• Hexwood.

Theresa Tomlinson writes good female main characters I enjoyed when I was 11 or so - there are a trilogy of books retelling the Robin Hood stories, starting with 'The Forestwife'. Having read Blackcurrants' post I feel duty bound to point out they do early on include a teenage, unmarried pregnant girl whose baby is stillborn (it's not graphic but is obviously sad). However, in general they don't demonise sex or mention it much at all!

She also wrote three books set in near Whitby in the nineteenth century, all of which have female main characters - you can get them collected into one book or separately, and my favourite is The Flither Pickers. Again, I feel duty bound to point out that Bad Things happen to women (yes, there's another unmarried pregnant woman to whom Bad Stuff happens). But, again, this is not a central part of the story, and the main point that's made is that women bonding as part of a community is much more important than social morality. It's also very good on love and loss and virtually all the important characters female. And it gets points for having a male character, the granddad, doing a 'stereotypically feminine' role of childcare.

I could go on for hours and bore you to tears, but it's nearly 1am so I should probably shut up!

Ooh! I just cross posted with you typing my massive post, blackcurrants ... this is very nosy of me so ignore if you will, but do you know Frances? My lot do (though I haven't yet got to meet her and am very jealous when they talk about her books!).

LRD yes I should probably declare an interest there- I knew her through friends-of-friends when I lived in England, and always found her lovely. Soft-spoken, offbeat, wonderful wicked sense of humour. Just like you'd expect, really! :)

Good to know. Sorry, that was very nosy of me and I probably should have asked via PM.

a few of my friends have published brilliant books that I praise to the skies, but Frances publishes young adult/children's books with awesome heroines in them ... so frankly, I don't want anyone to miss out!

Just found out there is a sequel to Howl's Moving Castle called House of Many Ways!

There are two, sweet - there's also Castle in the Air, which is great. It's main character is a man but it is highly recommended for good female characters who break the usual sterotypes in a fun way.

black - absolutely!

Ooh, thanks!

Glad to be of service!

I love her books. I was so sorry when she died.

Joan Aiken's Dido Twite is another great heroine (books set in a slightly alternate-university of British history). She has the lawless thing going on, rather like Artemis Fowl, I suppose.

Brilliant links thank you. Marking place to see what I can get for DD (she is only nearly 6)

I know she's not really an action heroine, but Clarice Bean is ace (there are picture story books, then novel length books).

My DD who is 11 gave her vote to Lyra from The His Dark Materials trilogy.

Frozen in Time by Ali Sparks has a group of children, male and female, all of whom are strong characters. And in this vein, the Narnia books contain strong femail characters. Susan and Lucy fight along with their brothers, but also show positive feminine traits.

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve has a cool female main character called Hestor

So many excellent suggestions - including quite a few I've not heard of or that I have heard of but never read.

Zizou Corder "Halo" . Ancient Greek setting, foundling girl, abducted from adoptive family, flees slavery disguised as a boy, falls back into slavery, fights her way out, finds birth relatives, loses them, Happy ending somehow!

Most of DWJs books have strong female protagonists. Or, in the case of Charmed Life - baddies.

In addition to the ones mentioned by LRD I'd add:

Wilkins' tooth (the baddie is a woman and she is very bad indeed but there are many strong female characters among the 'goodies' - and it's the female characters who save the day);

The Merlin Conspiracy (the two main protagonists are equally gender balanced which seems fair to me)

The Sword of Dalemark (this is a sequel to the Dalemark series, The Spellcoats was mentioned above, although that was the third book in publication order it is chronologically the first book. The middle two do have some strong women characters but actually are perhaps the least feminist of all her books.

The Time of the Ghost - all the main protagonists are female.

Fire and Hemlock - again, the main protagonists (both good and bad) are female although there are some strong male characters in this one too

The Game - another young female protagonist

8 Days of Luke - gender balanced protagonists - the female 'lead' is a bot of a wimp to begin with but becomes proper good (role model wise) at the end

The homeward bounders - the main protagonist in this is male. But there are some really excellent female characters too, and they are very kickass

Basically DWJ is the greatest writer than ever lived. I reckon.

Oh, someone mentioned Phillip Reeve. The Fever Crumb books are great. Also, the Larklight series has a very strong female character (although there are strong male characters too).

Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart stories are brilliant for an older girl and very feminist. DWJ is great. I also love The Ordinary Princess by MM Kaye about a princess who runs away from home and gets a job to avoid marrying a boring prince.

I also love the Tamora Pierce books. For young children The Emily Brown books by Cressida Cowell are good.

The Garth Nix trilogy - Lireal, Sabriel, etc