Book review: Middle Grade fantasy books with strong girls

Here's part II of my new series reviewing speculative fiction books for kids that feature strong female characters. Last week, I introduced books for younger middle grade readers (ages 8-10). This week, it's all about the tweens. Check back; I plan to update this list regularly, particularly with more culturally diverse authors and protagonists.

Middle Grade Ages 10-12
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

This Newbery-medal winning novel blew me away. This exciting adventure begins with a village, shrouded in despair, that must leave its youngest baby in the forest for a witch in order to ensure another year of survival. Of course, one mother does not give her child willingly, setting off a chain of events within the village. When we meet the witch, and the baby she collects, delightful surprises involving moon-magic, a tiny dragon, and a poetic swamp monster propel events toward an inevitable reunion/conflict between the village and those who would try to control its people.

The language, the surprising plot, and the engaging characters entranced me. I loved the witch who is considered a healer in one town and evil in another; the village elder with the vicious heart of a tiger; the apprentice witch who doesn't know her own power; and the gentle, creative male "hero" who is rescued by the women that form the core of this story.

Subtly subversive, beautifully written, and deeply engaging--I cried!--this is an amazing book. It does have elements that sensitive readers might find disturbing (the willingness to sacrifice babies, and the gentle death of a beloved character). But I would recommend this book highly for kids and adults.

Book review: Younger fantasy books with strong girls

I love a good fantasy (or speculative fiction). Transport me to another realm and I don't wanna come back. Well, unless it's a dystopian world. Then where we are now doesn't look so bad. Usually.

So imagine my delight in finding a batch of recent fantasy books for kids featuring strong female leads. I plan to keep adding to this list, particularly with more culturally diverse authors and protagonists. I've organized them by general reader age appropriateness, and plan to include more posts for different ages. Keep checking back!

Younger Middle Grade (ages 8-10)

The League of Beastly Dreadfuls series by Holly Grant
Book I and Book II: The Dastardly Deed

This funny, imaginative mystery series begins with a funeral and goes downhill from there. After a bunch of strange occurances, Anastasia is forced to move in with her creepy aunties in their weird Victorian house. Once there, she becomes a very curious Cinderella, forced to serve her aunts in squalid conditions with a foreboding sense of something really bad about to happen.

The faux-Victorian setting and mixture of goofiness and existential dread echoes A Series of Unfortunate Events. When this intrepid prisoner turns to investigation, she discovers mystical friends and clues to the truth that will set her free in a most unexpected way.

In Book 2, The Dastardly Deed, Anastasia travels with her newfound relatives to an underground ice palace, just one part of a world of magic and fascinating people. Another mystery requires sleuthing, which brings her closer to finding the truth about her family.

Although the creativity and surprises are abundant, I preferred Book 1's semi-realistic setting and humor (or maybe it's just the Goth in me). The world-building in both books is engrossing, and the humor and mysteries keep readers guessing. Best of all, Anastasia is a smart, creative, delightfully imperfect guide that readers will enjoy following anywhere.

Looking forward to Book 3: The Witch's Glass this summer!

Check next week's post for a Middle Grade recommendation!

Book review: Sisters of the Revolution

Sometimes I forget how fulfilling it can be to read explicitly feminist writing.

So I have been enjoying the heck out of Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer.

Speculative fiction is a catch-all phrase for science fiction, fantasy, and other harder-to-classify writing with a fabulist "what-if" slant. What if employees were encouraged to conform to corporate culture through biological additions, as in Eileen Gunn's "Stable Strategies for Middle Management"? What if there was "The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet" as in Vandana Singh's story?

This book encompasses an excellent selection of stories from the 1960s to now by a diverse group of writers, both well-known--Angela Carter, Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, James Tiptree, Jr. (really Alice Bradley Sheldon)--and up-and-coming--Nnedi Okorafor, Rachel Swirsky.

Although this collection is definitely for adults, I was excited to see a couple of my favorite kidlit authors, Catherynne Valente and Kelly Barnhill, represented. I was also thrilled to discover writers like Nalo Hopkinson and Hiromi Goto.

Some of the stories are familiar, like "The Screwfly Solution" and "The Evening and the Morning and the Night," but these are woven artfully among others arranged so that stories "speak" to one another across time and space. I loved the combination of styles: a journalist's "report" ("The Forbidden Words of Margaret A." by L. Timmel Duchamp) horror, surrealism, sci-fi (Elisabeth Vonarburg's great reimagining of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), sword-and-sorcery, fairy tales, and more.

The strains of feminism are diverse too, with varying degrees of satire, uplifting hear-me-roar grrl power, and horror-filled dystopian warnings. These stories represent women of different cultures, ages, sexual orientations--even species. Each selection is delightful reading and a thoughtful commentary on women's roles in society. These are stick-to-you stories. I know that Susan Palwick's "Gestella," about a werewolf in love, will haunt me.

Highly recommend this book, and I can't wait to dig further into the oeuvre of many of these writers.

Special shout-out to publisher PM Press, an amazing, socially conscious publishing organization out of Oakland. Looking forward to exploring their collection further, too!