Welcome to my theory. I believe that we as readers, authors, relatives, and friends can help young women be better equipped with the skills and confidence to cope by encouraging them to read books with strong heroines who are not loners. A group of authors and Romance Writers of America members shared an amazing list of book suggestions with strong heroines that meet these criteria for middle grade and young adult readers.
If you can suggest books to add to this list, visit the contacts page on my site or share them with me by email to addisonbrae@gmail.com.
Middle grade book recommendations (age 8-12)
- Rob Buyea, Because of Mr. Terupt series. Seven fifth-grade students come together to solve a problem that seems insurmountable, and their lives are changed by one amazing teacher.
- Mary Casanova, The Klipfish Code. This story takes place in 1942 during the Nazi occupation of Norway when twelve-year-old Marit decides to take action despite her grandfather’s warning.
- Roshani Chokshi, Aru Shah and the End of Time. Twelve-year-old Aru Shah teams up with three of her classmates to stop a demon and save the world.
- Sharon M. Draper, Out of my Mind. This funny and heartbreaking contemporary fiction is about an 11-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who’s the smartest kid in school but no one knows it. Draper also wrote Blended with a biracial protagonist whose parents split up.
- Diane Duane, Young Wizards series. This 10-book series starts with So You Want to Be a Wizard. It sounds like a Harry Potter spin-off, but it predates that series by about a decade. The characters begin as preteens and grow into their teen years as the series progresses.
- Sayantani DasGupta, The Serpent’s Secret series. Sixth grade Kiranmala wakes up a normal kid on her birthday in New Jersey. Her parents vanish and a demon slams through her kitchen, and then she finds out she’s an Indian princess from a secret place not of this world.
- Chris Grabenstein, Welcome to Wonderland series. This funny illustrated series is about the wacky things that happen when you live in the Wonderland Motel. P.T. Wilkie, Gloria and other kids try to save the hotel.
- Varian Johnson, The Parker Inheritance. This is a mystery with a young girl who seeks the help from the quiet boy across the street to solve an injustice from decades ago.
- Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again. The story is told in verse and based on the author’s own experience about a 10-year-old girl who flees Saigon on a boat with her mom and brothers until the U.S. Navy finds them. They settle in Alabama where she has to integrate into a school without knowing any English.
- Gail Carson Levine has written a number of middle grade and young adult books with strong heroines.
- Madaleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, is classic coming of age fantasy that inspired a modern movie and impacted many of us when we read it as young teens.
- Jennifer A. Nelson, A Night Divided. This historical fiction is about Gerta and her family that gets separated by the Berlin Wall and fights their way to freedom.
- Andrea Davis Pinkey, The Red Pencil. This tells the story of 12-year-old Amira who’s finally old enough to go to school when her Sudanese village is attacked and she strikes out on her own to a refugee camp.
- Eva Stone, Violet Sky and Violet’s Trial. This science fiction chronicles a 12-year-old girl’s experiences when she’s forced to grow up too fast after society is destructed.
- Jordan Stratford, The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series. These books feature two real historical women, Ada Lovelace and Mary Shelly, but re-imagined as two young head-strong and smart girls solving crimes.
- Raina Telgemeier creates graphic novels such as Guts, Sisters, Drama, and Ghosts that deal with family, peer pressure, and other issues kids deal with.
- Kat Yeh, The Way to Bea and The Truth about Twinkle Pie. These stories are about middle school kids who face fitting in, finding friends, and finding their place.
Young adult book recommendations (age 13-18)
- Beth Barany, Henrietta The Dragon Slayer. This fantasy three-book series is written specifically to empower young women and girls to be the heroes of their own lives.
- Jeri Bronson, Seeking Perfect. A contemporary fiction about a 17-year-old girl living with a alcoholic parent. It depicts her emotional struggles and her resolve for a better life. There is a cute boy too.
- Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy, Once and Future. This story retells the popular legend Once and Future King with a teenage girl with a universe to save.
- Any of the 15 books by Sarah Dessen, who writes beautiful and honest contemporary fiction about family, peer pressure, and other issues most teen girls face.
- ME Girard, Girl Mans Up. This story is about an LGBTQ teen trying to be who she wants to be.
- Maureen Goo, The Way You Make Me Feel. This laugh-out-loud story is about of love, new friendships, and one unique food truck after Clara took a joke too far.
- Georgette Heyer, The Grand Sophy. Sophy, who at age 20 or so, solves every problem in her world by her wits alone. (recommended by a teen)
- AG Henley, The Scourge. This fantasy has a blind heroine who has to help her people of the forest survive The Scourge.
- Claire Legrand, Sawkill Girls. A fantasy about three teen girls who face off against an insidious monster that preys upon young women.
- Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Summer of the Mariposas/El Verano de las Mariposas. This Mexican-American retelling of the Odyssey is about four sisters working together and learning something about family in the process.
- Tehlor Kay Mejia, We Set The Dark On Fire. A romantic fantasy that will appeal to The Handmaid’s Tale fans is about a society wife-in-training who has a great awakening after rebel spies recruit her and she falls for her biggest rival.
- Ariella Moon, The Teen Wytche Saga. A contemporary sweet romance series in which the female protagonists discover magic cannot help them with issues such as friendship troubles, teen suicide, depression, OCD, missing children, and teen homelessness. Instead, they discover their inner strength, and through strength, love, and sisterhood, cope with, and improve, their situations.
- Julie Murphy, Dumplin. About Willowdean Dixon, the fearless, funny, and unforgettable heroine who takes on her small town’s beauty pageant.
- Daniel Jose Older, Shadowshaper. Introduces a heroine and magic unlike anything else in fantasy fiction.
- Tamora Pierce, any of her titles, especially Song of the Lioness books, Protector of the Small series, and Circle of Magic books. Pierce features teen girls as knights, wizards, and heroes.
- Nisha Sharma, My So-Called Bollywood Life. A romance with a Bollywood twist.
- June Shaw, Just One Friend. A dystopian where limited food and space caused leaders to decree each person is allowed only one friend. Sixteen-year-old Alabama Long disagrees. (co-written by teens)
- Sharon Shinn, Elemental Blessings. This four-book series takes place in a historic fantasy world where people believe five essential elements rule all things and guide their lives.
- Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Grey. Fifteen-year-old Lina is a Lithuanian girl living an ordinary life until Soviet officers invade her home and tear her family apart. Will strength, love, and hope be enough for Lina and her family to survive?
- Isabel Sterling, These Witches Don’t Burn. This story has a lesbian heroine with the power to control fire, earth, water, and air, with her hot ex and her new bi-crush
- Angie Thomas, The Hate You Give. Sixteen-year-old Starr maneuvers between the world of her poor neighborhood and the fancy suburban prep school she attends until she sees a police officer shoot her best childhood friend.
- F.C. Yee, The Epic Crush of Genie Lo. This empowering fantasy is based on Chinese folklore and is about a high school girl gifted with a celestial spirit. She tries to work on her college admissions applications while fighting demons.