Okay, what I'm looking for is YA Literature from about 1960 to now which feature female characters in the main group, but not necessarily protagonist. Ideally I want them both strong and weak female characters in a variety of roles from protagonist to antagonist to major supporting character. All sub-genres welcome. To give you an idea of some of the material I have right now: To Kill A Mockingbird Flowers in the Attic Speak Secret Life of Bees The Harry Potter series The Twilight Saga The Hunger Games What I'm not looking for is stuff like Judy Bloom's early work that was aimed more at tweens. I need stuff with cross-generational appeal; stuff that adults and kids enjoy, books that kids might read, but reread as adults and get a whole different story. International stuff is great, but must be available in English. My Spanish is about a 1st/2nd grade reading level, and my French is preschool. Thanks to any and all who can help. Also any good suggestions for text on Feminist Criticism would be welcome.

I'm not sure this is what you're looking for, Ame, but I used to read a series when I was a kid called Trixie Belden. A little like Nancy Drew, but it was a group of teens, both guys and gals, with Trixie being the main character.

I never read them but what about the Bobbsey twins or the Famous Five? Also the story "The Ballet Shoes" Little Princess? Secret Garden? I am not sure if these are what you are looking for but I am thinking of books that I was offered when I was a preteen. I tended to be more "horsey" though, reading the Black Stallion and like stories, or preferring the Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew. I wish I could help with current books but the books I tend to see the girls (and boys) in my class reading are for a younger audience, 6-9 year olds.

Becky, you are so right! I loved Trixie Belden I was thinking of that as soon as I saw the choices you listed below.

The first thing that popped into my head was the "A Wrinkle In Time" trilogy by Madeline L'Engle. Hopefully this will help.

As CD, "Little Princess" came to my mind, too! What about "Little Women" or "Jane Eyre"?

Have you considered 'The Adrian Mole' series of books by Sue Townsend? Pandora is certainly a strong and smart character, going on to be a politician in the later books, and Adrian's mother might also be a good source of inspiration. I read these as a teen when they first came out, then rediscovered them a few years back, and enjoyed them again. Now my boy has read them all himself, and won't let me have them back!!

OMG, Adrian Mole...hadn't thought of those books in years...hilarious.

11 thousand years lost by Griffin (cant spell her name) Im re reading Swallows and amazons but that's outside your time

Thanks, everyone! Please keep the suggestions coming. Some I've read long ago, and hadn't thought about them being cross-generational, or just didn't think about. As far as the timeline goes, that I've given myself, it's fluid, but was done with a purpose, so something that was really progressive for it's time, but doesn't fit within the set time frame is not to be discounted. Right now, I'm gathering source material, and then will have to start narrowing down, otherwise I'll be reading forever and never writing. Some I might just read for fun, even if they don't make the final cut. If you are interested in what I'm doing, or why, the other day I was talking with my cousin about books, Harry Potter, Twilight, and Hunger Games, and really how annoying Bella is as a character (annoying enough that I couldn't make it through the first book, but now I've got to). In my mind I started comparing her to Hermione and Katniss, and realized that I've not seen much academic analysis of female YA characters outside of the specific books. Looking for feminist theory books as secondary sources, there have been very few published this century, and most in the 1990s. And from there my list started growing. I'm still not certain what direction my research will take me, but I'm looking to analyze the role and growth of female characters and maybe do a feminist angle the traditional heroes quest.

What I am reading right now. Rae Carson's "Girl of Fire and Thorns," series...Sandra MacDonald's "The Outback Stars,: series...also a female lead in the first book, but the male in the second...Both of these fit in your Sci-fi/Fantasy sub genre. Sarah Prineas's "Winterling.." Good female characters all around But really Ame, what kind of book doesn't have what you are looking for???

K2, that may be true, which is one of the reason I gave the list of books that I started with, but I'm sure there are plenty of books out there with females only as minor characters, or characters so flat they are non-characters. I had to give some guidelines to help guide the search early on when asking others, so that is what I came up with, as I continue reading and add in critical text and start taking notes (I want several of these characters in my head as I do that), then I will start refining more. While I do have to limit what I choose for time, I'd like to start with as broad of a base as possible and narrow down.

Amethyst - for other titles/authors I have read with strong female characters (maybe BECAUSE of the female characters) are Anne McCaffrey (she has several series with female leads) Marion Zimmer Bradley (specifically Hawkmistress, which introduced me to other books in her Darkover Universe.) I believe she also wrote the Mists of Avalon - King Arthur from a women's POV. Robin McKinley is also another favourite of mine - specifically The Blue Sword and the Hero and the Crown have a female lead I like. My problem is I am not sure if these books/series would be considered YA, but I suspect the Narnia Series would be .... and Lucy and Susan have good strong roles in them.

You should take a look at the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. There's been a lot of critical analysis on those books (even a published collection of analytical essays). If you want, I can recommend a number of very recent YA books with strong female protagonists/main characters. My DD's bookshelf is full of them! I did a double-take with Flowers In The Attic. I'll admit, I read it in grade 8, but no way would I ever consider it to be a YA novel.

Flowers in the Attic floored me when I read it, as I was in my late teens. It was the first book with those issues I'd ever read. I read a few of them, but couldn't stomach it anymore. One thing about them - it's my understand the author died but a ghost writer continued the series at some point. I've read some YA, screening stuff for my son when he was younger, but he's more into guy-oriented fantasy. There is a strong female character in the Percy Jackson series named Annabelle.

Ame, here are some ideas with a short description. These fall squarely in the YA category: Elizabeth Wein, "Code name Verity" -- excellent story about a WW2 pilot and her best friend, also a girl, who is a spy. There are also a lot of other female support characters. Strongly recommended! Donna Jo Napoli, "Daughter of Venice" -- about Renaissance Italy. Mal Peet, "Tamar" -- WW2 in Holland. Malorie Blackman, the "Noughts and Crosses" trilogy -- interesting on its own merits, it also boasts three generations of female protagonists.

For some weird reason no one that hasn't been mentioned comes to mind for me. This project does sound interesting, though, Amethyst! For a non-fiction and mythology take on things you might want to read Women Who Run With the Wolves. It's very much about the life lessons that various myths and fables were meant to convey, from a fairly strong female perspective (if I remember correctly).

Thanks, Chris! I do need some non-fiction sources, too, to make sure I'm not duplicating something that has been done, but also to expand my own reading of the main texts. Other non-fiction sources that I've been looking at is Mad Woman in the Attic and one that was published just a couple years ago, but I can't remember the title at the moment.

If you want real feminist trash then read the Tomoe Gozen Trilogy by Jessica Amandas Salmonson (a 70s fantasy which has recently been reprinted for some reason)

Originally posted by Tengu If you want real feminist trash then read the Tomoe Gozen Trilogy by Jessica Amandas Salmonson (a 70s fantasy which has recently been reprinted for some reason)

I'll investigate it, it might prove useful, but I'm not really looking for anything that was written to genre, but stuff that transcends genre (if that makes sense).

Madeleine L'Engle wrote some other great teen / tween stories -- the Austin family books come to mind as well as Poly O'Keefe in A House Like a Lotus. I liked Beverly Cleary's Fifteen and Jean and Johnny when I was around that age. Some of the later Little House on the Prairie books might fit, when Laura was working as a teacher or homesteading with Almanzo. Sounds like an interesting project!

One YA series that I really liked, but that isn't nearly as well known as, say, The Hunger Games, is Garth Nix' Abhorsen Trilogy. The main characters are mostly female. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Kingdom_trilogy There's also a very strong and nuanced female character (Irene, the Queen of Attolia) in Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series, though she is most prominent in the second book. Helen, the Queen of Eddis is a prominent supporting character in the series, and an interesting contrast to Irene. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Whalen_Turner I was in my thirties when I read them, and they never seemed like "YA" to me, just really good stories.

I need stuff with cross-generational appeal; stuff that adults and kids enjoy, books that kids might read, but reread as adults and get a whole different story.

Something that comes to mind, as a book where nearly all the characters are children, being trained as soldiers, but which is very popular with adults (in fact, I don't think it's normally regarded as YA and I was about in my late 20s when I first read it) is Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game." Ender is a boy but his sister, Valentine, is prominent in the book and there's one girl at the battle school who has a fairly prominent supporting role. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra_Arkanian

LB, did you know they're making an Ender's Game movie with Harrison Ford in it? They're going to have a big panel at Comic Con. It's on our schedule. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP0cUBi4hwE

Originally posted by Transmute Jun LB, did you know they're making an Ender's Game movie with Harrison Ford in it? They're going to have a big panel at Comic Con. It's on our schedule. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP0cUBi4hwE

I saw the trailer for that when I saw Star Trek. TBH, at the time it made me think that now is the time to try and do a live action BotP movie, but now I'm seriously thinking of adding it to the list. One of my Freshmen read it a few years ago, but I had a hard time following his review of it.

Originally posted by Transmute Jun LB, did you know they're making an Ender's Game movie with Harrison Ford in it? They're going to have a big panel at Comic Con. It's on our schedule. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP0cUBi4hwE

I did know about the movie, but not the panel. Cool! And it looks like they're giving Petra a pretty prominent role in it, as she's in the trailer (and they've cast an Oscar-nominated actress to play her).