YA Girl power books from my childhood with relatable female heroines for Women's History Month

Hello my friends and welcome to the Omschool. I'm teacher Omi (grama) an educator now in her 50th year of working with kids. I started my "career" babysitting at age 10 and even then, I did or attempted fun and educational things with the kids in my care. Like Time for Timer's OJ ice cubes which I tried and failed to make 😏😁Timer forgot to explain that flimsy toothpicks don't stay put in cheap Saran wrap. But it was still fun trying. 

So I'm really excited about March because it's both Women's History Month and National Reading Month. These dovetail very nicely with the theme of this post: Girl power books from my childhood with relatable female heroines.

Women's history is about our history, or her-story, mine and yours. It's not just about famous women. It's about each of us, collectively and singularly. My her-story was steeped in reading. There's a picture of me at 2 with my nose in a book. My memory place is crowded with friends from literature. I've explored places and met people all around the world and through time, in my life's library. 

Early in life, the books I read featured more stereotypical girls in traditional roles. I liked it best when we read of these "normal" girls doing big, unusual or outside the norm things. I think of Caddie Woodlawn, Laura and Mary Ingalls, Jessie from The Boxcar Children, Understood Betsy and some of my other favorites. 

But then, in the late 60s-early 70s, as I was hitting my tweens, children's literature began to figure quirky girls in less traditional roles. Women's literature started reflecting less on things expected of girls and more on what they actually experienced. Even things like puberty (thank you, Judith Blume), were now actually talked about. 

Girls were shown as real, imperfect people with B.O. and zits, not paper dolls. Hating our mandatory itchy socks, making awful cookies because you used uncooked rice instead of oats, throwing tantrums sometimes and often with good reason. (God love ya, Katie John) I liked them even more because I could relate. 

No longer did we feel like little freaks who would never measure up to the picture perfect goodness of, say, a Nancy Drew or Cherry Ames (student nurse) though I did and still do adore her stories. Nancy Drew not so much--too perfect. (I still love fairy and princess stories too, btw! Thanks, Heather, for introducing me to Shadow Castle! There's always room on my book shelf for new friends but I keep the old, too! )

So without further ado, here are more of my best-loved girl power books from childhood with real girls in real situations!

Freaky Friday (Mary Rodgers) You may know this from either of the movies, but reading it is more difficult because it's written in stream of consciousness from a big city teen's perspective. And I read this book, like I did so many others, too young. Freaky Friday came out in 1972 when I was 8. I didn't even fully get the major plot twist (no spoilers).  Readers are living Annabelle's interior monologue in situ. I would recommend preparing readers for these confusing shifts in scene and random introduction of characters.  You can use this free printable character map. Also, age 11 to 12 would be a better age. But still, it's a cracking great read and I was able to get the gist, even being so young. 

The Noonday Friends (Mary Stolz, 1965) Franny and her friend are Greenwich Village apartment dwellers who can only meet at noon because Franny has many responsibilities having a skint family and a dad better suited to an art studio than the more fiscally sensible shoe sales. The big apple vibe and a girl with too much on her plate resonated with me. My favorite part and I won't spoil is the DIY party they throw for little brother. It's no great shakes but it does show what a girl with more brains and heart than money can do if she put's her clever mind to it. 

The Doll of Lilac Valley Read this about 8 as well and I still tear up remembering. So what I love about Laurie Coxe, our heroine, is the tender, mature way she deals with the elderly people who are trying to parent her but who have never had children. It's kind of Anne of Green Gables-ish. Laurie realizes that she has to cut them some slack but also that loving people sometimes do awkward things but they are meant with great love. 

Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack! (M.E.Kerr, penname of Marijane Meaker, who wrote several of my favorite books. She wrote under several pseudonyms because some of her books explored new territory in that time, including lesbian fiction.). It's not an easy read and it reflects a lot of the early 70s culture of drugs, psychotherapy, self-help, hippies, organic religions that won't make much sense to now readers. Also, being based in LA might confuse some small town kids. (I actually related because my parents fancied themselves hippies.) But it does start to look at eating disorders, distant and do-gooder parents who neglect their own kids and misperceptions about people.

Harriet the Spy Harriet is a too-smart, upper east side NYC poor little rich kid. She misfits among her posh school bullies (there's no bully like a posh school bully) and has a limited friend group of other less-fit kids. As part of her planned journalism career she snoops on a circuit of people and records their activities. This spying is not well-received when her journal is discovered and people read things about themselves that they don't like. Harriet must use her wits to regain the few trusted friends she had. 

So even while getting that spying on people is wrong, my favorite part of the book was in fact, Harriet's meticulous route and routine for doing said spying. Her notebook was a master class in organization, just saying. I also can relate to the fact that Harriet had to work herself out of her own mess. No adult helped, save an absentee nanny with ambiguous advice. Like Freaky Friday, I probably read Harriet the Spy too young to get all the nuances.