Fiction with Strong Female Protagonists
These novels celebrate positive female role models—girls who are the strong protagonists of their own lives. Courageous Amal struggles to regain her freedom and become a force of change for her Pakistani village. Cece's superhero persona “El Deafo” challenges common misconceptions about disabilities. And compassionate Merci Suárez overcomes adversity facing her family. Each Study Guide offers inspiration for generating meaningful discussion about character development and transformation—and more—in these inspiring reads.
Twelve-year-old Amal’s dreams of becoming a teacher are shattered when she disrespects the powerful landlord of her Pakistani village and is forced into a life of servitude in the New York Times bestselling Amal Unbound (2018). Author Aisha Saeed is a Pakistani-American teacher, writer, and attorney as well as a founder of the We Need Diverse Books organization. In Amal Unbound, Saeed calls attention to contemporary global inequities, exploring themes of social injustice, education, and... Read Amal Unbound Summary
Eleven-year-old Pakistani-American Amina Khokar lives in Milwaukee with her mother, father, and brother, Mustafa. At school, a Korean girl named Soojin Kim is her best friend. Amina is distressed when Soojin befriends Emily, a girl who has historically joined in on racially-motivated taunts against Soojin and Amina. The situation is complicated when Amina, Emily, and Soojin—along with the class oddball, Bradley—are assigned to the same group for an Oregon Trail project in their social studies... Read Amina's Voice Summary
Brown Girl Dreaming (2014) is a memoir in verse by Jacqueline Woodson, a children’s and young adult fiction writer. Published by Nancy Paulsen Books, a division of the Penguin Group, the memoir won the National Book Award, the Newberry Honor Book Award, and the Coretta Scott King Award.Plot SummaryBrown Girl Dreaming covers Woodson’s childhood, detailing her family history and her beginnings as a writer. Woodson was born in Columbus, Ohio, on February 12, 1963, the... Read Brown Girl Dreaming Summary
Counting by 7s is Holly Goldberg Sloan's first middle-grade novel, published in 2013. A New York Times bestseller, this contemporary story draws upon themes relevant to Sloan's own life. The novel is set in present-day Bakersfield, California, which Sloan says is “emblematic of the characters,” in the sense that it is “often overlooked.” Sloan's subsequent novels include Short (2017) and The Elephant in the Room (2021).Plot SummaryThe novel's protagonist is 12-year-old Willow Chance, a “highly... Read Counting by 7s Summary
Daughter of Fortune, first published in Spanish in 1998 (Hija de la fortuna), is the fifth novel by celebrated Latin American writer Isabel Allende. The winner of multiple awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Chile’s National Literature Prize, Allende created this work of historical fiction, in part, to explore the impact of feminism on her own life. Daughter of Fortune tells the story of a young woman, Eliza Sommers, and her odyssey of... Read Daughter Of Fortune Summary
... Read Dry Summary
El Deafo is a 2014 semi-autobiographical, graphic novel by American author and illustrator Cece Bell. Bell, who was born deaf, recounts her childhood in the format of a guide starring an anthropomorphic rabbit, “Cece.” The book endeavors to undermine negative representations of deafness by representing Cece’s difference as valid, even empowering, with the assistance of modern technology. Throughout the book, Cece occasionally assumes a superhero persona, “El Deafo.” El Deafo challenges common misconceptions about disabilities... Read El Deafo Summary
Fish in a Tree is a 2015 middle-grade novel by American author Lynda Mullaly Hunt (Shouting at the Rain, One for the Murphys). It follows the story of a middle-school girl named Ally, who is artistically and mathematically talented but unable to read due to her dyslexia. Throughout Ally’s school career, she uses humor, misbehavior, and feigned sickness to distract from her learning difficulty, doing everything in her power to avoid writing and reading tasks... Read Fish in a Tree Summary
Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad is a 1955 biography by American author Ann Petry. This book takes the reader on a journey through Harriet Tubman’s life, from her birth to enslaved parents on a Maryland plantation to her death as a free woman in New York in 1913. Tubman is a well-known figure in American history and is best known for her heroic actions as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad. After escaping... Read Harriet Tubman Summary
The story opens in February 1975. Hà lives with her mother and three older brothers (Brother Quang, Brother Vũ, and Brother Khôi) in Saigon, South Vietnam. Hà knows her father, a naval officer, only through Mother’s stories and memories; he disappeared nine years earlier, a victim of the Communist Army of North Vietnam. Hà learns fractions, practices embroidery, and celebrates the start of the new lunar year on Tết (February 11). As spring and Hà’s... Read Inside Out And Back Again Summary
Cynthia Kadohata’s first novel, Kira-Kira (2004), is a historical coming-of-age novel for middle-grade readers. The novel tells the story of the Japanese American Takeshima family, who live in the Chesterfield, Georgia, in the 1950s. The protagonist and first-person narrator is the younger daughter, Katie. The narrative spans seven years, involving the family’s move from Iowa to the South, where Katie’s parents become workers in the poultry industry. The narrative follows Katie as she awakens to... Read Kira-Kira Summary
Lucky Broken Girl is a middle-grade historical novel by Ruth Behar. Main character Ruthie Mizrahi, an immigrant from Cuba, lives with her parents and brother in 1966 Queens. Together they try to quell their homesickness for Cuba while seeking new opportunities in America. When a car accident injures Ruthie, she becomes bedridden in a full body cast for over a year; during that time, challenges and fears she never anticipated give her a new perspective... Read Lucky Broken Girl Summary
Madame Bovary is a foundational realist novel. Authored by the esteemed French writer Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), Madame Bovary was first released through serialization in 1856, and then formally published as Flaubert’s debut novel in 1857. Madame Bovary is one of the earliest examples of realism in literature and is credited with helping to develop the importance of psychological realism in literature. It is a love story, a vociferous critique of the ways in which society... Read Madame Bovary Summary
Merci Suárez Changes Gears (2018), a contemporary middle-grade novel by Meg Medina, centers on a young girl facing major changes to her family dynamics. The book won numerous awards, including the 2019 Newbery Medal. Medina, a founding member of the “We Need Diverse Books” movement, has written many picture books, young adult books, and middle-grade novels about strong girls who overcome adversity and step up to challenges.Plot SummaryEleven-year-old Merci Suárez is the child of Cuban... Read Merci Suárez Changes Gears Summary
Money Hungry is a 2001 middle-grade novel by American author Sharon G. Flake published by Little, Brown and Company. A Coretta Scott King Honor book, Money Hungry is the first book in Flake’s Raspberry Hill series. It explores 13-year-old Raspberry Hill’s hunger for money and the lengths to which she will go to acquire it. Stemming from a period of homelessness in her childhood, Raspberry will do almost anything to earn enough money to move... Read Money Hungry Summary
Moon Over Manifest is a 2010 novel by author Claire Vanderpool. It relates the story of 12-year-old Abilene Tucker, a drifting girl in search of her father, a home, and a sense of belonging. When the novel starts, her father, Gideon Tucker, has just sent Abilene to the Kansas town of Manifest, claiming that he can’t take her to Iowa, where he is allegedly taking a railroad job. It is 1936, and the Great Depression... Read Moon Over Manifest Summary
No Talking (2007) is a children’s novel by Andrew Clements, and the 2010 recipient of the California Young Reader Medal. In the novel, fifth-grade boys and girls compete to see who can talk the least at school. The competition causes an uproar among teachers and staff, exploring questions of authority in the school setting and building friendships across differences. Andrew Clements was a teacher, author, editor, and book publisher, best known for his debut novel, Frindle... Read No Talking Summary
Number the Stars is a 1989 middle-grade novel by Lois Lowry. A work of historical fiction, it focuses on the experiences of Annemarie Johansen, a 10-year-old Danish girl, living in Copenhagen during World War II. The book follows Annemarie and her family as they attempt to save their Jewish friends, the Rosens, from being sent to a Nazi concentration camp. The novel was critically acclaimed at the time of its release and won the 1990... Read Number the Stars Summary
Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust is a historical middle-grade novel in verse first published in 1997. Through 110 first-person free verse poems, the narrative tells the story of two years in the life of Billie Jo Kelby, young daughter of a struggling farming family in the Oklahoma Panhandle in the mid-1930s. After a tragic accident results in the death of Billie Jo’s mother and baby brother, she and her father must find a way... Read Out of the Dust Summary
Parvana’s Journey by Deborah Ellis follows 13-year-old Parvana as she makes her way across war-torn Afghanistan in search of her mother and siblings. Published in 2002, this novel is a sequel to the international bestseller The Breadwinner, which was adapted as a 2017 animated film, and is the second in a series of four called The Breadwinner series. Although Parvana’s Journey is a work of fiction, Ellis bases the setting of the novel on the... Read Parvana's Journey Summary
Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson is a young adult novel published in 2017. In 2018, it won the Coretta Scott King Award from the American Library Award Association and was named a Newbery Honor Book by the Association for Library Service to Children. The novel comprises 76 chapters, each of which is given a bilingual title in English and Spanish. For example, Chapter 1 is titled “español - Spanish language,” and Chapter 2 is... Read Piecing Me Together Summary
American author, educator, filmmaker, and civil rights activist Toni Cade Bambara published her short story “Raymond’s Run” in 1971. It first appeared in a collection edited by Bambara, Tales and Short Stories for Black Folks, and later in her first short story collection, Gorilla, My Love in 1972. During this time, Bambara became prominent in the contemporary Black women’s literature space, emerging as a notable writer and editor alongside contemporaries such as Toni Morrison and... Read Raymond's Run Summary
Published in 2004, Sarah Weeks’s middle grade novel So B. It follows 12-year-old protagonist Heidi as she sets out to discover the truth about her background and family. Heidi grows up not knowing her own birthday, her father’s name, or how she came to live in Reno, Nevada with her mentally disabled mother. When she finds an old roll of film from Mama’s past, the photos inspire her to begin a journey to uncover the... Read So B. It Summary
Set during the Great Depression in the segregated South, Stella by Starlight is a historical middle grade novel by award-winning author Sharon M. Draper. As the Ku Klux Klan exerts increasing influence over the residents of rural Bumblebee, North Carolina, 11-year-old Stella Mills must confront racism while navigating the challenges of school, family life, and friendship. First published in 2015, the novel won the Charlotte Huck Award, an honor for children’s fiction granted by the... Read Stella by Starlight Summary
IntroductionBritish author Roald Dahl first made his mark as a leading writer of children’s literature in 1961, when he published James and the Giant Peach. His subsequent books include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda, and his 1982 novel The BFG (Big Friendly Giant), which was illustrated by Quentin Blake and based on a segment of Dahl’s 1975 book Danny, the Champion of the World. His books have been viewed as darker... Read The BFG Summary
Introduction Written by British author Mary Norton in 1952, The Borrowers is the first in a five-part series along with The Borrowers Afield (1955), The Borrowers Afloat (1959), The Borrowers Aloft (1961), and The Borrowers Avenged (1982). The book follows the story of the Clock family, a trio of tiny people who live beneath the kitchen floorboards in a large house in the British countryside. Norton was born in London in 1903 and grew up... Read The Borrowers Summary
The First Rule of Punk is Celia C. Pérez’s 2017 debut YA novel. It was a 2018 Pura Belpré Author Honor Book, a 2018 ALSC Notable Children’s Book, and a 2018 Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award Winner. Pérez, as a long-time punk zine author and Mexican Cuban woman, drew from her adoration of “outsiders” and “weirdos” to craft her first novel. Pérez then penned her second YA novel, Strange Birds: A Field Guide... Read The First Rule of Punk Summary
Vogue magazine first published American author Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” in 1894. It was published under the alternate title “The Dream of an Hour.” Some contemporary readers consider the story an early example of flash fiction, a term used for very short prose narratives. The story exemplifies psychological fiction, in which the action of the plot concerns the emotions and thoughts of the protagonist. One of Chopin’s best-known and most popular works... Read The Story of an Hour Summary
Published in 1990, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by children’s book writer Avi, tells the story of a teenage girl who travels from England to America aboard a sailing ship filled with intrigue, mutiny, and murder; she learns to be a sailor, withstands a hurricane, and thwarts the captain’s attempts to kill her. Written for middle-grade readers, the book won several awards, including the Newbery in 1991. Plot SummaryThirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle, at school in... Read The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle Summary
The War That Saved My Life is a work of historical fiction by bestselling author Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. The novel is intended for middle-grade readers and was published in 2015. It has won several awards, including the Newbery Honor for being among the most distinguished American children’s book of its year. The Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly listed the book as among the best children’s books in 2015, and it won 14 state book... Read The War That Saved My Life Summary
Turtle in Paradise is a 2010 historical fiction children’s novel by Jennifer L. Holm. Set in the Florida Keys during the Great Depression, the novel follows an 11-year-old girl’s struggles and successes as she visits her aunt and cousins in the town where her mother grew up. The novel won the Golden Kite Award and is a Newbery Honor Book as well as a Junior Library Guild selection.This guide refers to the 2010 Random House... Read Turtle in Paradise Summary
Weedflower, Cynthia Kadohata’s 2006 historical fiction young adult novel, tells the story of 12-year-old Japanese American Sumiko amid Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and the US government’s ensuing involvement in World War II. Kadohata depicts the conditions of Japanese internment camps from Sumiko’s perspective, providing unique insight and education on the racism that Japanese Americans faced and the US government’s poor decisions.This guide references the 2009 paperback reprint edition from Atheneum Books for Young Readers.Plot... Read Weedflower Summary