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Books Catching My Eye (from RTMMWTB)

November 2009

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Liz B.

Great list!

Little Willow

Kudos! This must have been a lot of work! :)

Kate S.

This is wonderful. Thanks for posing the question and compiling the list!

sally apokedak

Thanks for this list. It's great!

Nancy Dowd

Great list- how fun!

Becky

Amazing, Jen, and you were able to include links to all the titles!

I'm late to the party -- it's been a busy week or so -- but am linking to it, too. I think you've done some kids a wonderful favor this summer...

Jen Robinson

Thanks so much, everyone! It's really great to see people visiting, and checking out the list. And yes, Little Willow and Becky, it was a bit of work (especially generating those 200 links), but definitely worth it! Thanks again for the feedback!

Kathleen

Fab list. thanks.

Zdena M

This is an excellent list! Every teacher, librarian and parent should have it taped up for all to see and use.

BTW, I was so pleased to see the Grimm Sisters mentioned. I absolutely adore those books!

Jen Robinson

Zdena, I will be quoting you on your kind words ("Every teacher, librarian and parent should have it taped up for all to see and use"). What a worthy goal! Thanks!

I also liked what Becky said over at Farm School in a lovely post about the cool girls: "I'm thinking I should print out a few copies of the list, one to tuck in our library bag and another near the computer for online interlibrary loans". What a nice thought! Thanks again to all who contributed to and/or appreciated the list!

ANOTHER COOL GIRL

I nominate Libby, from Blow Out the Moon (Little, Brown 2004, paperback 2006). She's funny, spunky, and smart.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031601480X/qid=1152102829/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-8963046-2644925?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Alkelda

Another cool girl of children's lit: Shabanu from Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind, and Haveli.

Jen Robinson

Thanks for the new suggestions, Alkelda and anonymous! I'll make sure they get added to the list.

KJ

I love this list, along with the one that you have for boys! I would like to add Princess Mia Thermapolis from the Princess Diaries books by Meg Cabot to this list, as well as Meg Falconer from Gordon Korman's On the Run Series.

Thanks for complining these lists!

--KJ--

Jen Robinson

Hi KJ,

Thanks for the suggestions! Mia is actually on the list (under M for Mia), but I will get Meg Falconer on the list the next time I do updates. Thanks for visiting, and for the suggestions!

KJ

Oops! Must have been blind there for a moment to have missed seeing Mia on the list already. Thanks for pointing that out to me!

--KJ-- :-)

KJ

Oops! Must have been blind there for a moment to have missed seeing Mia on the list already. Thanks for pointing that out to me!

--KJ-- :-)

Roseminnie

Here's one of my favorite cool girls of another era - Betsy Ray from the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. She's focused (but sometimes realistically insecure),talented and just a delight! Her story takes place in the early 1900s but is still very relevant in 2006.

nrkii

I'm so happy that Turtle Wexler from the Westing Game made it to the top 20! Who knew there were other people in the world that loved that book and that character? Not me!

nrkii

Beautiful list. I just noticed Katie John is in there, and I suddenly had a flashback to books I had forgotten ever existed.

Other suggestions:

Rebecca ... Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Eleanor ... The Diamond in the Window

Wendy ... Peter Pan

Elnora ... Girl of the Limberlost


CountryGoalie

Leslie Burke, from Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Stargirl, from Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Wendy

Charlotte--The True Confessions of Great list!

Some additions from me:

Charlotte Doyle by Avi

Alice from the Alice Series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Olivia from the Charlie Bone series (more prominent in the series than Emma Tolley)

Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter

Wendy

Oh and how about Beany Malone from the series by Lenora Mattingly Weber!

miranda

Eeeeeexcellent list. Most of my childhood heroines are here (Aerin, Vesper Holly, Harry Crewe, Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, "The Velvet Room"'s Robin, Jennifer from "... and Me, Elizabeth", Sophie Hatter, Winnie, etc), along with some more recent ones (Sabriel and Lirael, Lyra Belacqua, Coriander, "Perilous Gard"'s Kate). When I was about 10, I had a succession of goldfish named Frank, because of Anastasia Krupnik.

Some others:

Sally Lockhart from Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart series ("The Ruby in the Smoke" et al). Before there was Lyra....

Claire from "The China Garden" (which is adult even for a YA book, but that's the only reason it might not qualify.) I think the author is Liz Berry.

Laura from "The Changeover" by Margaret Mahy. And the guy in the book, whose name I can't recall, is definitely a Cool Boy!

Katie John, from Mary Calhoun's series.

I don't know if Kate Mosse's "Labyrinth" is still on your to-read list or if it's a done deal, but I'm pretty disappointed with it after 200pp; characterization is mostly done with a broad brush (all sexily beautiful women in the book are eeevil, for example), twists are telegraphed from a mile away, and the central mystery isn't developed well. The historical background is good, and I'm just curious enough to keep reading, but I'd place it somewhere above "DaVinci Code" and below "The Historian."

Jen Robinson

And the suggestions just keep rolling in! Who knew that there were so many cool girls in children's literature? I've run across some new ones myself, in my recent reading (Nancy and Minerva from Pirates!, for example). I'll be putting together an updated list, or at least a list of updates, sometime soon. Thanks again to all of you who have taken time to comment, and share your favorites.

And no, I haven't read "Labyrinth" yet. My "to read" pile of kids books just keeps getting higher, and I may not get to Labyrinth until it's in paperback, and I take it on a trip.

Thanks again to all of you!

RM1(SS) (ret)

Wow - it's hard to think of someone who's not on the list! Nancy Blackett and Trixie Belden were the first ones I thought of, but of course they're already there.

How about Judy Bolton, from the series by Margaret Sutton?

Caroline Mshiyeni, from Tunnel in the Sky, a juvenile SF novel by Robert A Heinlein.

The Leewit, from The Witches of Karres.

(Does Charlotte, from Charlotte's Web, really belong on this list? She's a spider....)

RM1(SS) (ret)

Oh, and also Dinah and Lucy-Ann, from the Adventure series (Island of Adventure, &c) by Enid Blyton.

Eliza

I can't let this go without nominating Mattie Gokey from A Northern Light. She was an amazing, hard-working young girl.

Mary Tichey-Staack

How about Molly from "Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon" by Patty Lovell?

RM1(SS) (ret)

Beka, from Beka Cooper: Terrier.

Lazy Cow

This is a fantastic list. I'm so glad I found it (via HipWriterMama). If you're still taking suggestions, my daughter and I love:
Katie from Katie meets the impressionists, Katie and the bathers, etc by James Mayhew

Katie Morag from the Katie Morag picture books by Mairi Hedderwick

Saffy and Rose from Saffy's Angel and Permanent Rose by Hilary McKay

Kate from Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa by Erica Silverman

Little Willow

I have more from new books!
Zibby Payne from the Zibby books by Alison Bell
Lauren Lee Smith from Bloom by Elizabeth Scott
Josie from Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

Lynne

Here another cool girl: Root Karbunkulus from The Questory of Root Karbunkulus by Kamilla Reid. Probably haven't heard of it yet 'cause it's new (the author actually came to my daughter's school) but you can find out more on the book's website www.rootkarbunkulus.com I think she will be up there with the greats very soon!

RM1(SS) (ret)

Just finished reading Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature. Kayla Connor definitely belongs on this list!

Jen Robinson

Kayla Connor is definitely a cool girl. She was my favorite character from the book, and she ROCKS. Thanks for the suggestion.

your neighborhood librarian

New Cool Girls:

Tip from The True Meaning of Smekday - she saves the world! how cool is that!

Stephanie Edgley from Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

I love that Tiffany Aching made the original list. She is such a hero!

Jen Robinson

Thanks, YNL. I'll make sure these get added to the list next time I update it (one of these days...)

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