Books with strong female characters

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Books with strong female characters

Check out this list of books featuring strong female characters. Put them on hold easily below:

Picture Books


    • Beaumont, Karen.
      I like myself!
      Summary:In rhyming text, a little girl expresses confidence and joy in her uniqueness, no matter her outward appearance.



    • DiPucchio, Kelly S.
      Grace for president
      Summary:When Grace discovers that there has never been a female U.S. president, she decides to run for school president.



    • Heide, Florence Parry.
      Princess Hyacinth : (the surprising tale of a girl who floated)
      Summary:Princess Hyacinth is bored and unhappy sitting in her palace every day because, unless she is weighed down by specially-made clothes, she will float away, but her days are made brighter when kite-flying Boy stops to say hello.



    • Henkes, Kevin.
      Chrysanthemum
      Summary:Chrysanthemum loves her name, until she starts going to school and the other children make fun of it.



    • Knudsen, Michelle
      Marilyn’s monster
      Summary:A lot of Marilyn’s friends have monsters. It’s the latest thing. Each one is just right for its boy or girl. Marilyn really wants a monster, too, but despite her efforts to be the kind of girl no monster could resist, hers just doesn’t come. What could be taking it so long? Everyone knows you just have to wait for your monster – but the spunky and determined Marilyn thinks there may be other ways that things can work.



    • Portis, Antoinette.
      Not a box
      Summary:To an imaginative bunny, a box is not always just a box.



    • Waber, Bernard.
      Courage
      Summary:Provides examples of the many kinds of courage found in everyday life and in unusual circumstances, from tasting the vegetable before making a face to being a firefighter or police officer.

 

Younger Middle Grade


    • Babbitt, Natalie.
      Tuck everlasting
      Summary:The Tuck family is confronted with an agonizing situation when they discover that a ten-year-old girl and a malicious stranger now share their secret about a spring whose water prevents one from ever growing older.



    • DiCamillo, Kate
      Raymie nightingale
      Summary:Hoping that if she wins a local beauty pageant her father will come home, Raymie practices twirling a baton and performing good deeds as she is drawn into an unlikely friendship with a drama queen and a saboteur.



    • Hale, Shannon
      The princess in black
      Summary:Princess Magnolia is having hot chocolate and scones with Duchess Wigtower when… Brring! Brring! The monster alarm! A big blue monster is threatening the goats! Stopping monsters is no job for dainty Princess Magnolia. But luckily Princess Magnolia has a secret — she’s also the Princess in Black, and stopping monsters is the perfect job for her! Can the princess sneak away, transform into her alter ego, and defeat the monster before the nosy duchess discovers her secret?



    • Rissi, Anica Mrose
      Anna, Banana, and the friendship split
      Summary:Anna and Sadie have always been best friends so when Sadie suddenly starts being mean, Anna is very sad and seeks support from her dog Banana and classmate Isabel, as well as advice from her brother Chuck and her parents.

 

Older Middle Grade


    • Benjamin, Ali
      The thing about jellyfish
      Summary: Some hearts beat only about 412 million times. Which might sound like a lot. But the truth is, it barely even gets you twelve years. Suzy Swanson has always known things that others don’t. She can explain the sleep patterns of ants. She knows there are 150 million jellyfish stings on the planet every year. She knows that the average middle school kid contains about 20 billion of Shakespeare’s atoms. But she can’t understand how Franny Jackson’s lifetime could be cut so short … before Suzy could make up for the worst thing she’d ever done to her friend. As Suzy retreats into a silent world of her imagination, she finds that the universe won’t allow her escape into grief. Astonishing wonders are all around her … as are the love and hope she desperately needs to forgive herself.



    • Hannigan, Kate
      The detective’s assistant
      Summary:“In 1859, eleven-year-old Nell goes to live with her aunt, Kate Warne, the first female detective for Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency. Nell helps her aunt solve cases, including a mystery surrounding Abraham Lincoln, and the mystery of what happened to Nell’s own father” —



    • Hunt, Lynda Mullaly
      Fish in a tree
      Summary:AAlly’s greatest fear is that everyone will find out she is as dumb as they think she is because she still doesn’t know how to read.

 

Graphic Novels


    • Bell, Cece.
      El Deafo
      Summary:Going to school and making new friends can be tough. But going to school and making new friends while wearing a bulky hearing aid strapped to your chest? That requires superpowers! In this funny, poignant graphic novel memoir, author/illustrator Cece Bell chronicles her hearing loss at a young age and her subsequent experiences with the Phonic Ear, a very powerful–and very awkward–hearing aid. The Phonic Ear gives Cece the ability to hear–sometimes things she shouldn’t–but also isolates her from her classmates. She really just wants to fit in and find a true friend, someone who appreciates her as she is. After some trouble, she is finally able to harness the power of the Phonic Ear and become “El Deafo, Listener for All.” And more importantly, declare a place for herself in the world and find the friend she’s longed for.



    • Hatke, Ben
      Legends of Zita the spacegirl
      Summary:Zita is determined to find her way home to Earth, but her exploits have made her an intergalactic megastar, and as her true self is eclipsed by her public persona, she faces a robot doppelganger, unsure of who she can trust.



    • Jamieson, Victoria.
      Roller girl
      Summary:“A graphic novel adventure about a girl who discovers roller derby right as she and her best friend are growing apart”–



    • Simpson, Dana
      Phoebe and her unicorn : a heavenly nostrils chronicle
      Summary:“Do you believe in unicorns? Phoebe does. She has no choice. One day she skipped a rock across a pond, and hit a unicorn in the face. Improbably, this resulted in a lasting friendship between Phoebe and the unicorn, one Marigold Heavenly Nostrils. Come along for the unicorn ride with Phoebe, as she deals with the usual burdens of childhood (cruel classmates, gym class, piano lessons) and also some unusual ones (magic hair, candy-breathing dragons, and the legendary Shield of Boringness). Can a precocious little girl and a self-absorbed mythical forest creature find common ground? Indeed they can, and that’s how Phoebe and her unicorn unfolds”–Page 4 of cover.


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