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(Did you miss Part 1? Here it is!)
Every day when my second-grader comes home from school, she hands me a stack of schoolwork to look at. I go through it fairly quickly, checking to see how she's done, making sure she's seen the notes that her teacher has written. I especially love to see the pictures she's drawn on the backs of her papers or when she has to write her own sentences. And sometimes I get something like what you see above: on a worksheet about Paul R. Bear's secret identity, my daughter wrote "Sally" over the name, then changed all the "he"s to "she"s and "his" to "her." She also drew some long hair on the bear (and added a mask, because obviously a superhero bear needs a mask).
It made me stop to think—because the general wisdom that I've heard when it comes to kids' books (and movies and TV shows) is that girls will like stories about boys, but not vice versa. I know my daughter reads plenty of stories about boys and enjoys a lot of them, but it's apparent that she doesn't think about them in the same way. It's still easier for her to picture herself as a character when it's a girl.
So that's one reason I'm making these lists—because girls deserve to have books they can get into. I do want to reiterate what I said in Part 1, though: just because these stories are about girls doesn't mean they're only for girls. I think a lot of boys would really enjoy some of the books on this list, and I think it's a good idea for any kid to have stories about boys and girls.
Without further ado, ten more excellent stories about girls!
The Paper Bag Princess
This is a classic from 1980 which I only discovered last year at our library, and is a really fun and funny picture book about a self-rescuing princess. When a dragon comes and burns down Elizabeth's castle and carries away her beloved Prince Ronald, she dons a paper bag (the only thing she could find) and sets off to rescue Ronald. She outwits the dragon, rescues Ronald ... and then learns an important lesson about self-worth. The drawings are delightful and I like the story because it's about a girl who is smart, resourceful and not afraid to speak her mind. (Prince Ronald, on the other hand, is a jerk, but he gets his comeuppance.) Ok, there's a little bit of inconsistency in the size of the dragon from drawing to drawing, and it doesn't make sense that a paper bag is the only thing that didn't burn, but hopefully you can get past those and enjoy the story anyway. I did.
Target age: 4-8
April and Esme: Tooth Fairies
Here's another find from my library—but this one is a new book. April and Esme are tooth fairies, off to deliver their first tooth. It's a very cute story that puts them in the modern world with cell phones and highways and anxious parents, and I think the story does a great job of portraying a modern tooth fairy family in a very sweet way. Click here for a full review.
Target age: 4-8
Ramona Quimby series
While I know my other elementary school teachers must have read stories to me, the one I really remember is my fifth grade teacher, who read to us a lot. We heard about Ralph and his motorcycle, a magical cupboard with an Indian in it, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and—of course—Ramona Quimby. I would guess that a lot of us who are parents now probably grew up with at least some of Beverly Cleary's books. Ramona is quite a character and I imagine that a lot of spunky little girls (Junie B. Jones
Target age: early elementary to middle grades
Igraine the Brave
I told you Cornelia Funke would make another appearance on my list—this time in a book for middle-grade readers. Igraine's parents are great magicians and keepers of the singing magic books. Her older brother, Albert, is training to be a magician as well. But Igraine—who is turning twelve—wants to be a knight more than anything. Well, when Osmund the Greedy shows up at their castle in order to steal the singing books for himself, Igraine finally gets her wish.
Funke has a lot of fun with the names of the characters: Rowan the Heartless (aka the Spiky Knight or the Iron Hedgehog), or Sir Urban of Wintergreen, the Sorrowful Knight of the Mount of Tears. Igraine tries very hard to live by the rules of chivalry as set out by Sir Urban, despite the fact that Osmund the Greedy is a dastardly, dishonorable fellow. The plot is also quite funny—on the morning of Osmund's arrival, Igraine's parents accidentally turn themselves into pigs—which means they can't do any magic, and it's up to Igraine and Albert to defend the castle, fix their parents and protect the Singing Books of Magic.
Target age: middle grades
Half Magic
Edward Eager is another great author who wrote several children's books in the 1950s and 1960s, and Half Magic isn't a bad place to start. A family of three girls and a boy discover a magic charm that grants wishes—but only in half, and they have several adventures as they try to work out how the magic works. Each of the four kids has their own distinct personality and it's a lot of fun to see where they end up. I first discovered it through Matt Blum's recommendation, and since then have gotten myself—I mean, my daughters—the next book Magic by the Lake
Target age: middle grades
Any Which Wall
Laurel Snyder was inspired by books like Half Magic and Edith Nesbit herself, and Any Which Wall is sort of her ode to those books. Four kids—this time two girls and two boys—find a mysterious wall in the middle of a cornfield. Eventually they figure out that the wall can take them to any place and time where there's a wall, and they take turns picking the location. This one is also great pro-reading propaganda, and encourages the idea of being your own person and not just becoming the person other people think you should be. I wrote a full review back at the end of 2009.
Target age: middle grades
The Penderwicks
This series rounds out my trio of "four kids having adventures." The Penderwicks are four girls, ages four to twelve, who live with their widowed father. The first book takes place in the summer when they go on vacation to a cottage owned by the snooty Mrs. Tifton (who, come to think of it, is a bit of a Tiger Mom to her son Jeffrey). The second book is about the girls' involvement in their dad's romantic life—his sister-in-law gives him a letter from his deceased wife, telling him that it's about time to think about dating. This, of course, alarms the girls and they do their best to implement their "Save Daddy Plan." Even though there is a lot of conflict among the sisters (who are quite different from one another), the books do seem real and there's no doubt these are four strong female characters. Read my full review here.
Target age: middle grades
Amulet series
If you're looking for a great graphic novel series for middle grade readers, check out Amulet. It starts off in our world but quickly moves into another, with elves and magic and steampunk-ish flying machines. The adventure and action should surely interest comics-loving boys, but the main character is a girl named Emily. Her younger brother Navin is also featured, but Emily is the keeper of the Amulet, which grants her powers but also has a will of its own. One interesting thing about the story is that, so far, you can't be sure who can be trusted. Everyone (including the voice of the Amulet) seems to have their own agenda, and Emily has to walk a difficult path among all the warring opinions. Vincent Jankowski reviewed the first book back in 2008, and I wrote a full review of the first three books last year.
Target age: middle grades to teens
When You Reach Me
Last year when I wrote about When You Reach Me, I gave it the GeekDad Seal of Approval. But Rebecca Stead was probably more excited about the other honor the book had just received: the Newbery Medal. It's a fascinating story, set in New York City, about a girl named Miranda who starts to find some very odd messages. It's a story that incorporates some sci-fi without really feeling like a sci-fi book, and it's hard to describe in too much detail without giving away some of the surprise. Read my full review here.
Target age: sixth grade and up (including teens and adults)
Foiled
I'll round out this batch with one more graphic novel: Foiled was written by the extremely prolific Jane Yolen and it's her first comic book. It's about Aliera Carstairs, who feels out of place in high school. She's a fencer and throws her entire being into fencing. Then this new kid shows up at the school, and suddenly everything changes. Bonus geek points: Aliera plays RPGs with her wheelchair-bound cousin. I've read that a sequel (Curses, Foiled Again) is in the works but haven't seen a release date yet. Read my full review here.
Target age: teens
April and Esme: Tooth Fairies
Sometimes I feel silly writing a lot about a picture book because I could probably quote the entire story here for you in fewer words—but that doesn't give you a sense of the pictures and the little details and nuances. First, a brief outline of the story:
April Underhill is seven ("and three quarters") and Esme is six, and they've never done a tooth visit yet. But they get a call from a grandma whose grandson just lost his first tooth, and she really wants April and Esme, not their parents. There's some initial reluctance from the parents, who insist they're too young, that the world is much more dangerous these days, but they eventually give in and send the girls on their way. They find the young boy, collect the tooth, deliver the coin and return home.
That's the gist of the story, but there are lots of little details both in the text and the illustrations that I really love. As with most picture books, I read it to my daughters several times and I actually noticed more things each time I read it. The Underhills live in a miniature house next to an old tree stump—and while the illustrations are lovely pen-and-watercolor drawings Graham makes sure to show that the tooth fairies don't live in a wonderland. Even on the cover you can see a popsicle stick and soda can pull-tab in the grass. April has a cell phone, which is how the grandma reaches her at the beginning of the story. Big trucks rush past on the highway, just a few yards away from the Underhills' home.
I loved the fact that the mom looks more like a traditional fairy—long blonde hair, white gown, ring of flowers on her head—except that she's got a little bird tattoo on her arm. The dad has his wavy hair pulled back into a ponytail and is wearing jeans and a T-shirt and has a five-o'-clock shadow, but he still has those big translucent fairy wings. And the two little fairies just look like regular girls with wings—Esme has short curly brown hair and even big glasses. On later readings, I caught some more details, like the fact that when you first see the dad he's hanging up laundry. I like that the fairy family has postage stamps hanging on their walls as posters, and the girls have a chess knight that's been turned into a horse riding toy. It's cute that April has a cell phone and texts her mom for help when the boy wakes up and sees them.
What really got to me—I'll admit my eyes got a little moist—was when the girls returned home. There's a scene of the girls on the front step, parents wearing their PJs and kneeling to hug them "until their wings crackled." Even though nothing really scary happens on the tooth visit, Graham really captures the emotions of the parents as they send their little kids out into the world: the uncertainty about the task, the flood of relief when they return, the pride at their success. Ok, so I'm not going to send my kids across a highway at night and I'm not going to buy my daughter a cell phone while she's seven. But I found myself admiring the way the mom and dad handled the situation and the way they obviously love their daughters.
It's a very sweet story, gorgeously illustrated, and I highly recommend it.
The Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall
(This review is modified from my personal books blog, from shortly after I'd read the books early last year.)
I found The Penderwicks
The Penderwick sisters are Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty, and they each have very different personalities. They actually reminded me a lot of the kids in Half Magic; and when one of the characters later refers to Magic by the Lake I wasn't too surprised. Rosalind is the oldest and most responsible; but at twelve, she's also starting to be interested in boys. Skye is a tomboy, and makes no attempts to hide her likes and dislikes. Jane is the romantic who writes her own Sabrina Starr adventures. And Batty, at age four, lives very much in her own world, with her ever-present butterfly wings and the Penderwicks' dog Hound at her side.
The girls and Mr. Penderwick spend their summer vacation at Arundel Cottage, owned by the imposing Mrs. Tifton. She is incredibly snooty and proud of her garden. Her son, Jeffrey, quickly becomes a good friend to the sisters after some amusing first impressions. The plot basically covers their three weeks at Arundel, with all sorts of drama, from getting chased by a bull to Mrs. Tifton's dreadful boyfriend Dexter.
While my six-year-old wasn't really old enough to appreciate all of the interaction (Rosalind's conflicting emotions about boys, for instance), she really did enjoy hearing the story and was immediately ready for the sequel as soon as we finished this one. For my part, I did feel that there was sometimes a little too much conflict (between siblings, between the girls and Jeffrey, between Jeffrey and his mother) the story did feel real and the characters well-developed. And as a father with two young girls, I appreciated having a book with strong girl characters, each with her own interests, gifts, and flaws.
The story was published in 2005 so it's not an old story. But with the setting at the summer cottage, outdoor adventures, and rarely any mention of videogames or television, it almost seems like something from ages ago. (Jane does type up her stories on her dad's computer, so you know it is a modern story, but I don't remember any cell phones.) It's a nice, almost timeless-feeling story that I think will hold up well next to the older stories that inspired the author.
As soon as we finished reading the first book, my daughter insisted that we start on the second book right away. And when we finished it, she loved it so much that when I closed the book, she exclaimed: "Now we can go read the first book again!" I'd told her that Birdsall was working on a third book, but according to her website it takes her about three years to write a book, and this one was published in 2008.
The story in The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
Again, since most of the girls are older than my daughter, I wasn't entirely sure how much she understood everything, but I think the mix of humor and drama, not to mention the fact that it's about four sisters, drew her into the story. I really liked it too, and I've been eagerly waiting for the third book in the series
