One of the books that we won from Templar Books recently was Sword of Light by Katherine Roberts. Small chose it because he’s rather into Arthurian legend. What he didn’t see before he chose it is that it’s a female lead character – and I expected mutiny when he picked it up, as previously he’s refused to read anything about *girls*. (Said in that disparaging tone of voice that only a 9 year old boy can manage. I’m sure you know the one.) In this case though, he read it and really enjoyed it, and I’m on a mission to find the others, as anything that broadens his horizons is good by me.
It set me thinking about the whole boy girl in book thing though, and obviously I turned to twitter.
Wondered if anyone could recommend feminist fiction for my kids to read? Daughter is 13, son nearly 10. Thanks. (RTs lovely)
— Jax Blunt (@liveotherwise) April 19, 2013
It turns out that this was a fascinating question – and I got lots of responses. (Best if you pop over to twitter to check them all out, though I suppose I could storify them later.)
What I didn’t ask though, is what makes something feminist fiction, and that is probably an even more interesting question. When I got round to that one
Ok, this is the question I should have asked first. What makes child/ya book feminist or not?
— Jax Blunt (@liveotherwise) April 19, 2013
The author K M Lockwood proffered a recent blog post, rescuing the heroine, which seemed spot on to me. And there was also the suggestion of applying the Bechdel test from Clare, which is something we have discussed here before. Another answer
@liveotherwise I have to say I assumed you wanted a female "lead" and a fairly strong one
— tattooed mummy (@TatMum_Blog) April 19, 2013
wasn’t quite what I was looking for. While I think strong female characters are incredibly important, what I suppose I wanted was books that explore the ideas and concepts, and alternate societies. So I was thinking more of The Gate to Women’s Country (S.F. MASTERWORKS)
I was surprised (as I always am) that no one ever comes up with Robin McKinley in these discussions. I need to see if I can find my copies of The Blue Sword
Tell me your feminist literary heroine to enter. Character or author, I don’t mind. Stick it in a comment. (If you want to recommend some books to add to my reading list, please do that too.) As ever the competition closes next Thursday 25th April at midnight so that I can announce the winner next Friday. And you can have an extra entry for sharing this post, using the badge or joining the linky with your own Read52 post – but you must leave an extra comment for each thing you’ve done, telling me what it is. As I’m doing the posting, I’m afraid it’s only open to UK – but if you’re international and happy to arrange to have it posted on you can do that – I’m only sending to a UK address. Draw will be made using the lovely plugin and the winner is, which relies on separate comment entries.
Grab the badge
Enter the linky.
The background: I’ve challenged Big to read 52 books this year. She will probably be mentioning them over here on her blog. I’m also going to have a crack at reading at least 52 books myself, and more importantly, I’m going to keep track of what books I’m reading to the little ones. I’m going to do all of that in a weekly post, and I’ve also set up a google plus community which you’re very welcome to join. (If you need an invitation, leave me a comment using relevant email address – which will stay hidden.)
disclosure: Amazon book links are affiliate links.
I’m still not sure what I deem a feminist book. I like books where it really doesn’t matter what gender the characters are, something like To Kill a Mockingbird where Scout could really be boy or girl and the story still play out.
But I’ll put Rebecca from Rebecca’s World by Terry Nation (he who created the Daleks) as my choice, as she bravely travels to new lands, makes new (strange) friends, defeats evil and helps others to feel good about themselves
Oh and the book I couldn’t remember is Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman
Try ‘Mortal Engines’ by Philip Reeve. Not your average kids book (aimed at 10+) but it has two strong females and a somewhat inept male who survives more by luck than judgement. It’s got a touch of the Hamlets about it, in that nearly everybody dies, but it’s a hugely enjoyable, slightly subversive read. I had to read it as part of my OU Children’s Literature course and I demolished it in two short sittings.
A friend of mine wrote a great blog post recently about The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I hadn’t really thought of it as feminist when I read it, but thinking more there are lots of questions about women’s role in the family, the leads are all women and some of them make some bold, non-conformist choices. Not sure if that technically answers your question (and I take issue with your tweet – to me, ‘easy entry’ means ‘tell me your favourite pancake topping’, not ‘say something useful and clever about literature’!) 😉
An author whose work I fell in love with as an early teen was Tamora Pierce. I still keep buying her books as they come out. And they ALL have strong female leads (e.g. knight, mage, policewoman, spy) with multiple other strong female characters guiding and mentoring them, or opposing them.