I have a friend who works at a feminist bookstore and is trying to build up the juvenile fiction collection. She's looking for recs of girl-friendly interesting fiction for older children.
And I'm going to start my own by recommending Sherwood Smith's A Posse of Princesses (http://www.amazon.com/Posse-Princesses-Sherwood-Smith/dp/1934648272/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231515570&sr=1-6). I'm going to quote the first two paragaphs of meganbmoore's writeup (http://meganbmoore.livejournal.com/856521.html) here, as the rest contains spoilers:
Rhis, the princess of a small but rich kingdom, is sent by her parents to the coming of age party for Prince Lios of Vesarja, along with every other available princess and noblewoman around. Along the way she befriends Shera, the romantic younger sister of Rhis’s domineering sister-in-law, with whom Rhis has been trading correspondence for years. In Vesarja, Rhis is immediately smitten with the handsome prince and catches the eye of another noble, but is more comfortable with a scribe named Dandiar. She also befriends many other princesses, notably Taniva, a plainswoman used to horses and raiding, and Yuzhyu, Lios’s cousin who is visiting Vesarja before her own marriage.
The cover blurb describes the book as a rescue mission when Iardith, the most beautiful-and most arrogant-of the princesses disappears, but that event doesn’t occur until over halfway through the book. Most of the book is spent on the girls becoming friends and the court gossip, complicated by things like teenaged hormones. This is far from a bad thing, and I like how the princesses and their cultures are all so distinct, even though they’re all huddled in a normal European-medieval fantasy castle.
Anyway, the main character has a brain and common sense, and uses them both. Smith uses a fairly common trope as part of the plot, but turns it on its head later in a most satisfying way.
Hey, telophase reposted this for me. I'm accepting all recommendations, because neither me or my bass has kids, or really familiarity with the genre at all. I'm doing web-research and scouring reviews and publishers catalogs, but I really welcome recommendations by people who've read them. It gives me a place to start. I'm reading things as fast as I can to preview them, but a direction in which to focus my time is great.
Thank you for the recommendations, I'm checking them out. :D
You need Scott Westerfeld, especially the Uglies (http://www.scottwesterfeld.com/books/uglies.htm) series.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (http://www.lemonysnicket.com/books.cfm). SO GOOD.
Diane Duane's Young Wizards (http://www.youngwizards.com/node) series, seriously.
Diana Wynne Jones: the Chrestomanci Chronicles (http://www.leemac.freeserve.co.uk/chresto2.htm) are an excellent place to start.
Robin McKinley (http://www.robinmckinley.com/books/) is pretty awesome for the older set. Sunshine, in particular, is sort of the anti-Twilight. ^___^
A lot of people like Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart (http://www.philip-pullman.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=28) quartet.
Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower (http://www.amazon.com/Perks-Being-Wallflower-Stephen-Chbosky/dp/0671027344) is wonderful.
I have not read, but have heard very good things, about Speak (http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2005/4/9/171755/6410) by Laurie Halse Anderson.
If you're open to graphic novels, you should seriously consider the Girl Genius (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) printed collections! Brilliant, funny gaslamp fantasy (according to them; I'd call it steampunk) that not only features a wonderful heroine, but also easily passes the Bechdel test.
For more mainstream comics, Marvel's Runaways (http://www.amazon.com/Runaways-Vol-1-Pride-Joy/dp/0785113797/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_1_txt?pf_rd_p=304485601&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-2&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0785128530&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0ZMG1A2GKK7K8FKZH7VW) isn't bad. Similarly, Spiderman Loves Mary Jane (http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Loves-Mary-Jane-Vol/dp/078511954X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231521817&sr=1-1). High school and so cute.
My mother just bought "The Hunger Games" for one of my little cousins (who is about 10 or 11, I think?), who apparently loved it. And my little cousins seem to have increasingly good taste in literature (this one likes manga, too), so that'd be my suggestion.
Maybe Scott Westerfeld's stuff is a little too old, but it's certainly all good. The Attolia books by Megan Wheelan Turner?
I'm going to agree with that. Also Sophie is a strong character and one that I think older-young girls could look up to. It is a book full of adventure set in a fantasy world that is easy to get into.
My current favorites are Sarah Dessen, some of Maureen Johnson's (favs are Bermudez Triangle and Key to the Golden Firebird), Justina Chen Headley (LOVE)
Not sure how much your friend cares about POC authors, but I liked these, and all of them have heroines I like: Cynthia Leitich Smith's Tantalize (I like her heroine too), Cherry Cheva's She's So Money, Melissa de la Cruz's Fresh Off the Boat (not so much her others though), Caridad Ferrer's Adios to My Old Life, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu's Shadow Speaker and Zahrah the Windseeker, Kashmira Sheth's Keeping Corner, and Sherri Winston's The Kayla Chronicles. Have not read but heard good things about Alaya Dawn Johnson's Racing the Dark.
Books with strong white female protagonists that I like are Kristin Cashore's Graceling, Howl's Moving Castle, The Perilous Gard, Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series (starts with Wee Free Men) and Nation, Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life as We Knew It, Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy.
Am sadly too lazy to link to all my write ups, but I think I've written up most of those somewhere here.
Darn it! I read "older children" as "older teens." So my age groups are totally off.
I will now shove in a rec for Angela Johnson, whose books I really love! And Sherri L. Smith's Lucy the Giant and Hot, Salty, Sour, Sweet. Cynthia Leitich Smith has also written a book for younger teens/older childern called "Rain Is Not My Indian Name" that I have not yet read but plan to after reading Tantalize. Nnedi's books are for older children as well.
I love Sarah Dessen! On days when I've sold one too many copies of Twilight, Dessen's continued popularity at my store soothes my soul. Lock & Key is my fave so far, but overall I am happy for books that quench my thirst for Lurlene McDaniel ANGST without the side effect of making me want to punch myself in the face.
Though it's for much younger kids, have you read The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin? It's sweet and funny and simply written, with parts that go oww without pounding it in. Like how the Taiwanese-American heroine is happy when there's finally another Asian girl in her elementary school to make friends with, but she'd learned of the new girl's existence because the lunch lady got mad at her for "going through the line twice." (Oww.) ETA and just noticed there's a sequel! in my birth Year of the Rat, eeeee!
I haven't read the Grace Lin books, although they are on my list (largely because of the title of the latter, big surprise there). Rats! Even metaphorical zodiac rats!
Bewitching Season by Marisa Doyle Young Wizards series by Diane Duane The Luxe and Rumors by Diana Godberson Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones Ella Enchanted, Two Princesses of Bamarre and Fairest by Gail Carson Levine Wildwood Dancing and Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix East by Edith Pattou Crown Duel and A Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith A College of Magics and A Scholar of Magics by Caroline Stevermer Sorcery and Cecelia by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede
Since I only started really reading YA last year, most of these have writeups at my LJ. East I just finished yesterday and will have a post on in the next few days, and I'm only up to book 3 on Young Wizards.
Garth Nix: Abhorsen, Sabrael, Lirael. Scott Westerfeld: Uglies, Pretties, Specials, Extras, Midnighters Trilogy (The Secret Hour, Touching Darkness, Blue Noon), So Yesterday. Peter Beagle: The Last Unicorn. John Scalzi: Zoe's Tale. Fuyumi Ono: Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow. Diana Wynne Jones: Howl's Moving Castle, Time of the Ghost (and probably others but those two come to mind immediately). Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird. Carolyn Stevermer & Patricia Wrede: Sorcery & Cecilia.
And possibly more for parents of young adults than the young adults themselves: Rosalind Wiseman: Queen Bees & Wannabes. Gavin DeBecker: Protecting the Gift.
I think these are all great recs, but many of them are actually YA, and some are older/sophisticated YA at that. What's the age group your friend is looking for? I tend to interpret "older children" as 10-12.
Our current juvenile/YA section is pretty thin, once the reading age is over 6 or 7. So I'm happy for recs for all ages, and a lot of the parents that are our regular customers are pretty free with what their kids read.
But if you know of anything especially good for the 9-12 group, that would be awesome.
The Sherwood Smith novels are definitely appropriate for 9-12. So is Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series. (The sequel series, The Circle Opens, is aimed older and contains darker material.)
The House of Thirty Cats by Mary Calhoun is a lovely cat-centric novel, appropriate for 8-12. Similarly, Lois Duncan's Hotel for Dogs.
Lois Duncan's thrillers are excellent but more eleven-and-up. The best ones are Down a dark Hall, Stranger with my Face, Summer of Fear, and Killing Mr. Griffin. The last is very dark.
You have some good stuff here! I'm especially seconding Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak and Westerfeld's Ugliestrilogy quartet.
For older teens:
Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Gingerbread, Shrimp, and Cupcake by Rachel Cohn
There's enough swearing in those to have generated a few irate Amazon reviews from parents. And then there's the abortion plot in the Cohn trilogy.
A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside by Holly Black
Lauren Henderson has a fun British boarding school murder mystery series starting with Kiss Me, Kill Me. I think the next book is coming out about now... ah: Kisses and Lies.
Oh, for sure the four Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books by Ann Brashares.
For younger kids my data is too outdated. ;) Do you have some of the classics like Black Beauty? I remember going through a reading phase that involved grabbing anything with a horse on the cover. Marguerite Henry was a big favorite.
I hate to recommend anything with the word 'Disney' on it, but there's a very popular series of "Disney Fairy" books that are actually quite decent. The 'main canon' books are by Gail Carson Levine, who is awesome, and the books all have a lot of excellent lead characters who are independent, don't need boyfriends, and have their own trades they practice (Tinker Bell, for example, is a pots-and-pans fairy and does repairs). I know boys are more likely to be 'reluctant readers' but they might well draw some reluctant girl readers in. There's also a chapter book spinoff for the Arthur picture books. My 7-year-old loves all of these.
For slightly older kids, Lloyd Alexander has some very good series, including the Chronicles of Prydain and the Vesper Holly books. I really enjoy Donna Jo Napoli, who writes about a host of different settings and culture, with great respect for all of them. She often retells folk tales and classic stories.
And I wouldn't call it girl-friendly (well, no more than any good book!) but The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is excellent. Just excellent. (That's more teens and older teens.) Chris Crutcher also writes good, true stuff about teen boys and girls.
Vote AGAINST AGAINST The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler. It gets some pimping because it has feminist trappings and a Printz Honor Award, but that book skeeved the hell out of me.
On the pro side, The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, and the Flora Segunda books by Ysabeau S. Wilce regularly make me the happiest little feminist in teentown. For the non-fantasy set, some recent faves are The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean and Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You by Dorian Cirrone.
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. A fairy-based book a la Holly Black. Less dark and violent, but still with a definite edge to it. It subverts many conventions that YA books generally have with relationships.
Hannah's Garden by Midori Snyder. Beautiful short novel about celtic mythology, painting, gardens, and a mother-daughter relationship.
Waifs and Strays, The Blue Girl, both by Charles De Lint. He also has a YA novel called Dingo, but I haven't read it, so I can't say how it is. The former is a short story collection using many different settings, with almost exclusively female leads. It features many different voices of many different female characters, and is primarily supernatural/urban fantasy in genre. The latter is an urban fantasy novel about a friendship between two teenage girls and while its prose isn't as good, it's very fun. The stories in Waifs and Strays were originally written mainly for adults, but not of them are unsuitable for teenagers.
Any of the Dealing with Dragons books by Patricia Wrede are wonderful.
If she's looking for something darker for older YA, The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray is an excellent one with a strong female protaganist. It's a neo-gothic steampunk novel. Also, The Looking Glass Wars novels are an alternate reality take on Alice in Wonderland with a strong female role.
Chris Wooding`s Poison stars an awesome female character, and I can vouch that it`s an awesome story. It has fairies and changelings and crossing over worlds, and delicious stories.
Mette Ivie Harrison also has a really good novel out called Mira Mirror. It`s basically a reimagining of the Snow White story, except from the perspective of the mirror and the Queen, many, many years after the downfall of the Queen and the tale of Snow White has passed. All very strong female characters in that novel, and all except for two guys are leading ladies. =D
I've loved what I've read by Shannon Hale so far. She has other books, but Princess Academy and Book of a Thousand Days are great! The books deal with multiple, complicated issues and have tough heroines who defy the societies in which they live, in unconventional ways.
I loved the Redwall series when I was in middle school. I'm not sure they're specifically targeted toward girls, but I loved them.
mystickeeper and I also work at a feminist bookstore!
Others have deluged you with fabulous recs, but I just want to put a good word in for Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu's YA novels, Zahrah the Windseeker and Shadow Speaker. Both are appropriate for young YA in the 10-12 range and up, though I think they're rewarding for those older. They're pretty unique in the genre in that it is set in a sort of fantasy Nigeria, all of the main characters are people of color, and the protagonist is a young black girl on a coming of age quest.
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi Moribito: Guardian of the Darkness by Nahoko Uehashi (not out yet) Dragon's Milk by Susan Fletcher Flight of the Dragon Kyn by Susan Fletcher Sign of the Dove by Susan Fletcher I also agree with everyone who's recced The Last Unicorn, the Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Dealing with Dragons) series, Howl's Moving Castle, and To Kill a Mockingbird.
I like the Boogiepop series by Kouhei Kadono a lot but it's appropriate for teens. It reads a bit like a more coherent Heroes so there's a bit of sex and violence (not to mention people getting killed in gruesome ways) that might be a bit much for the elementary school set. There are, however, a lot of strong high-school aged girl characters (most of whom deal out vigilante justice . . . ^^;).
You've probably got the old standbys covered already but just in case: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Londgren (I actually don't think I've read these but I loved the live action special as a kid and the reviews seem good) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett Number the Stars by Lois Lowry Heidi by Johanna Spyri From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg Matilda by Roald Dahl Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
I second pretty much everything everyone else has mentioned! (But especially anything and everything by Angela Johnson, Sherwood Smith, Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley, Shannon Hale, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, and Diana Wynne Jones.)
Adding:
Megan Whalen Turner's Thief series is pretty much my favorite book series ever and I like to take every opportunity to recommend it. The Thief is the most kid-friendly, but the later installments should be fine as well and it isn't until the second book that the two queens really have the opportunity to shine. Turner's short story collection, Instead of Three Wishes, is a delight as well and very girl-friendly, though I've no idea if it's still in print.
Ursula K. LeGuin's Annals of the Western Shore, composed thus far of Gifts, Voices, and Powers. YA. Her Earthsea books are excellent, too, and I started reading them about the age of ten, so.
Nancy Farmer's A Girl Named Disaster and The Ear, the Eye and the Arm are both excellent.
Midori Snyder's Queen's Quarter trilogy, which was recently reprinted by Firebird.
Pamela Dean's The Secret Country trilogy, also reissued by Firebird.
Speaking of Firebird, the short story anthologies Firebirds and Firebirds Rising are both excellent and highly recommended.
The first book in Tanith Lee's Claidi's Journals books - Wolf Tower - remains one of my preferred comfort reads and I do recommend it. Not so fond of the later entries in the series, in which everyone behaves terribly to one another, the heroine spends most of her time moping, and most of the villains are women.
Landy's Skullduggery Pleasant books are suitable for a young age and they've loads of engaging female characters behaving awesomely on a regular basis.
Garth Nix's Abhorsen series.
Patricia Wrede's The Enchanted Forest Chronicles ought to be recommended reading for everyone in middle school.
Lloyd Alexander's stuff tends to be pretty good, but I'm most fond of The Prydain Chronicles.
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. I haven't read the sequel yet, unfortunately.
I strongly recommend the Kiesha'ra Series by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes-- Hawksong, Snakecharm, Falcondance, Wolfcry. and Wyvernhail. Amazon recommends this series for readers between grades 7 and 10th. The author published her first novel at 14-- if that's not an inspiration for young girls, I don't know what is. She was my idol growing up. :) Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde is also a great book.
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She should definitely have all of Tamora Pierce's books. And Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak and Chains. But--there's just a ton of stuff out there.
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Thank you for the recommendations, I'm checking them out. :D
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Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (http://www.lemonysnicket.com/books.cfm). SO GOOD.
Diane Duane's Young Wizards (http://www.youngwizards.com/node) series, seriously.
Diana Wynne Jones: the Chrestomanci Chronicles (http://www.leemac.freeserve.co.uk/chresto2.htm) are an excellent place to start.
Robin McKinley (http://www.robinmckinley.com/books/) is pretty awesome for the older set. Sunshine, in particular, is sort of the anti-Twilight. ^___^
A lot of people like Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart (http://www.philip-pullman.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=28) quartet.
Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower (http://www.amazon.com/Perks-Being-Wallflower-Stephen-Chbosky/dp/0671027344) is wonderful.
I have not read, but have heard very good things, about Speak (http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2005/4/9/171755/6410) by Laurie Halse Anderson.
If you're open to graphic novels, you should seriously consider the Girl Genius (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php) printed collections! Brilliant, funny gaslamp fantasy (according to them; I'd call it steampunk) that not only features a wonderful heroine, but also easily passes the Bechdel test.
For more mainstream comics, Marvel's Runaways (http://www.amazon.com/Runaways-Vol-1-Pride-Joy/dp/0785113797/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_1_txt?pf_rd_p=304485601&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-2&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0785128530&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0ZMG1A2GKK7K8FKZH7VW) isn't bad. Similarly, Spiderman Loves Mary Jane (http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Loves-Mary-Jane-Vol/dp/078511954X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231521817&sr=1-1). High school and so cute.
Good luck!
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Maybe Scott Westerfeld's stuff is a little too old, but it's certainly all good. The Attolia books by Megan Wheelan Turner?
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I'll be checking out the other authors, too. Many thanks :)
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"Princess Academy" and "the Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale (the latter is a retell of Grimm's fairy tale.
By Lloy Alexander: Vesper Holly's adventure series, The book of three, and Gypsy Rizka
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Not sure how much your friend cares about POC authors, but I liked these, and all of them have heroines I like: Cynthia Leitich Smith's Tantalize (I like her heroine too), Cherry Cheva's She's So Money, Melissa de la Cruz's Fresh Off the Boat (not so much her others though), Caridad Ferrer's Adios to My Old Life, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu's Shadow Speaker and Zahrah the Windseeker, Kashmira Sheth's Keeping Corner, and Sherri Winston's The Kayla Chronicles. Have not read but heard good things about Alaya Dawn Johnson's Racing the Dark.
Books with strong white female protagonists that I like are Kristin Cashore's Graceling, Howl's Moving Castle, The Perilous Gard, Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series (starts with Wee Free Men) and Nation, Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life as We Knew It, Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy.
Am sadly too lazy to link to all my write ups, but I think I've written up most of those somewhere here.
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I will now shove in a rec for Angela Johnson, whose books I really love! And Sherri L. Smith's Lucy the Giant and Hot, Salty, Sour, Sweet. Cynthia Leitich Smith has also written a book for younger teens/older childern called "Rain Is Not My Indian Name" that I have not yet read but plan to after reading Tantalize. Nnedi's books are for older children as well.
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Though it's for much younger kids, have you read The Year of the Dog
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Young Wizards series by Diane Duane
The Luxe and Rumors by Diana Godberson
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Ella Enchanted, Two Princesses of Bamarre and Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
Wildwood Dancing and Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier
Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix
East by Edith Pattou
Crown Duel and A Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith
A College of Magics and A Scholar of Magics by Caroline Stevermer
Sorcery and Cecelia by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede
Since I only started really reading YA last year, most of these have writeups at my LJ. East I just finished yesterday and will have a post on in the next few days, and I'm only up to book 3 on Young Wizards.
Multiple edits for repeated HTML fail.
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A few suggestions
Garth Nix: Abhorsen, Sabrael, Lirael.
Scott Westerfeld: Uglies, Pretties, Specials, Extras, Midnighters Trilogy (The Secret Hour, Touching Darkness, Blue Noon), So Yesterday.
Peter Beagle: The Last Unicorn.
John Scalzi: Zoe's Tale.
Fuyumi Ono: Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow.
Diana Wynne Jones: Howl's Moving Castle, Time of the Ghost (and probably others but those two come to mind immediately).
Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird.
Carolyn Stevermer & Patricia Wrede: Sorcery & Cecilia.
And possibly more for parents of young adults than the young adults themselves:
Rosalind Wiseman: Queen Bees & Wannabes.
Gavin DeBecker: Protecting the Gift.
Re: A few suggestions
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The name's meant to sound brainless. Pratchett's deliberately playing against type in multiple ways throughout the book.
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But if you know of anything especially good for the 9-12 group, that would be awesome.
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The House of Thirty Cats by Mary Calhoun is a lovely cat-centric novel, appropriate for 8-12. Similarly, Lois Duncan's Hotel for Dogs.
Lois Duncan's thrillers are excellent but more eleven-and-up. The best ones are Down a dark Hall, Stranger with my Face, Summer of Fear, and Killing Mr. Griffin. The last is very dark.
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trilogyquartet.For older teens:
Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Gingerbread, Shrimp, and Cupcake by Rachel Cohn
There's enough swearing in those to have generated a few irate Amazon reviews from parents. And then there's the abortion plot in the Cohn trilogy.
A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside by Holly Black
Lauren Henderson has a fun British boarding school murder mystery series starting with Kiss Me, Kill Me. I think the next book is coming out about now... ah: Kisses and Lies.
Oh, for sure the four Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books by Ann Brashares.
For younger kids my data is too outdated. ;) Do you have some of the classics like Black Beauty? I remember going through a reading phase that involved grabbing anything with a horse on the cover. Marguerite Henry was a big favorite.
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For slightly older kids, Lloyd Alexander has some very good series, including the Chronicles of Prydain and the Vesper Holly books. I really enjoy Donna Jo Napoli, who writes about a host of different settings and culture, with great respect for all of them. She often retells folk tales and classic stories.
And I wouldn't call it girl-friendly (well, no more than any good book!) but The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is excellent. Just excellent. (That's more teens and older teens.) Chris Crutcher also writes good, true stuff about teen boys and girls.
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*mems*
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On the pro side, The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, and the Flora Segunda books by Ysabeau S. Wilce regularly make me the happiest little feminist in teentown. For the non-fantasy set, some recent faves are The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean and Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You by Dorian Cirrone.
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Hannah's Garden by Midori Snyder. Beautiful short novel about celtic mythology, painting, gardens, and a mother-daughter relationship.
Waifs and Strays, The Blue Girl, both by Charles De Lint. He also has a YA novel called Dingo, but I haven't read it, so I can't say how it is. The former is a short story collection using many different settings, with almost exclusively female leads. It features many different voices of many different female characters, and is primarily supernatural/urban fantasy in genre. The latter is an urban fantasy novel about a friendship between two teenage girls and while its prose isn't as good, it's very fun. The stories in Waifs and Strays were originally written mainly for adults, but not of them are unsuitable for teenagers.
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If she's looking for something darker for older YA, The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray is an excellent one with a strong female protaganist. It's a neo-gothic steampunk novel. Also, The Looking Glass Wars novels are an alternate reality take on Alice in Wonderland with a strong female role.
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Mette Ivie Harrison also has a really good novel out called Mira Mirror. It`s basically a reimagining of the Snow White story, except from the perspective of the mirror and the Queen, many, many years after the downfall of the Queen and the tale of Snow White has passed. All very strong female characters in that novel, and all except for two guys are leading ladies. =D
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I loved the Redwall series when I was in middle school. I'm not sure they're specifically targeted toward girls, but I loved them.
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Others have deluged you with fabulous recs, but I just want to put a good word in for Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu's YA novels, Zahrah the Windseeker and Shadow Speaker. Both are appropriate for young YA in the 10-12 range and up, though I think they're rewarding for those older. They're pretty unique in the genre in that it is set in a sort of fantasy Nigeria, all of the main characters are people of color, and the protagonist is a young black girl on a coming of age quest.
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Moribito: Guardian of the Darkness by Nahoko Uehashi (not out yet)
Dragon's Milk by Susan Fletcher
Flight of the Dragon Kyn by Susan Fletcher
Sign of the Dove by Susan Fletcher
I also agree with everyone who's recced The Last Unicorn, the Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Dealing with Dragons) series, Howl's Moving Castle, and To Kill a Mockingbird.
I like the Boogiepop series by Kouhei Kadono a lot but it's appropriate for teens. It reads a bit like a more coherent Heroes so there's a bit of sex and violence (not to mention people getting killed in gruesome ways) that might be a bit much for the elementary school set. There are, however, a lot of strong high-school aged girl characters (most of whom deal out vigilante justice . . . ^^;).
You've probably got the old standbys covered already but just in case:
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Londgren (I actually don't think I've read these but I loved the live action special as a kid and the reviews seem good)
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
mostly fantasy, alas.
Adding:
Sorry I haven't much else to add!
no subject
Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde is also a great book.