Three Interesting and Engaging Female Leads

by Bryan Patrick Avery

It’s Womens History Month, and throughout the magic world, we’re celebrating female magicians. Suzanne, Alison Easton, Misty Lee, and Billy Kidd are just a few of the women who have helped advance the conjuring arts. As a magician, and a father, it’s important to me that my daughter see these women in action to help reinforce that she can become anything her heart desires.
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The same is true when it comes to books. It’s important to me that my daughter’s bookshelf be populated with stories featuring a wide array of characters including books featuring unique, endearing, and independent female leads.

One such book is Sara Pennypacker’s Clementine, illustrated by Marla Fraze. It’s a hilarious look at one little girl’s “not so good of a week”. The story is both funny and heartwarming, as Clementine attempts to help a friend through a crisis with disastrous results. In addition to being a great read (my daughter and I both read it in one sitting) the book is a great resource for writers looking for strong writing examples to strengthen their own work.

I recently had the opportunity to hear Sara Pennypacker speak at the SCBWI Winter Conference. She stressed the need to leave room for the reader. At the end of the first page of Clemetine, we read “Someone should tell you not to answer the phone in the principal’s office, if that’s a rule.” The reader decides for herself that Clementine must have answered the principal’s phone, and that that action led to negative consequences, all without the writer having to explicitly state it. It leads to a more engaging experience for the reader which explains why the Clementine series is a New York Times best-seller.

Another wonderful book we love is Ada Twist, Scientist, written by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts. A rhyming story, this #1 New York Times bestseller is the third book in a series which includes Iggy Peck, Architect and Rosie Revere, Engineer. Ada Twist is a curious young girl with lots of questions. We follow her on her quest to discover the source of a terrible smell as she ends up finding her passion: science.
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One side note, we also love this story because it features Ada Twist, a young black girl, just being a kid. Her skin color is completely unimportant to the story and we need more books that feature diverse characters just doing regular things. 

Lastly, since we’re perusing my daughter’s bookshelf, she wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t mention Rachel Renee Russell’s Dork Diaries series featuring the diary of Nikki J. Maxwell. This series has become my daughter’s favorite (I frequently have to remove one or more books from underneath her pillow each morning) in no small part because of how relatable the stories are.

Nikki is a middle-schooler and the first book, Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life, details a fight with her mom over getting the latest phone, meeting her crush and her new best friends, and facing off against her nemesis. Though laid out in a diary format, the stories are engaging and keep readers coming back for more.
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That’s all for now. This is just a sampling of the wonderful picture books and middle grade novels featuring some of my (and my daughter's) favorite females leads. Feel free to leave your favorites in the comments below. I’m off to finish my writing so I can prepare for an upcoming magic competition. Have a great month!