Book Reviews: Strong female leads

I have been using A Mighty Girl as a resource for my daughter as well as her Mighty Girls Club in our homeschool co-op, but it only just occurred to me to use the website to find some good YA reading for my own book pile. I just finished two books from the YA collection and would definitely recommend both for their intended age groups.

Dealing with Dragons: Patricia Wrede’s first book in the Enchanted Forest series is delightfully funny, exciting and everything a tween would love in a book. It’s filled with dragons, wizards, witches, enchanted spells and best of all, a princess who doesn’t want to get married. She volunteers to work for a fearsome dragon instead, which leads her to a number of grand adventures. I would have loved this book even more as a child and plan on buying the whole set for my own daughter.

Wintergirls: I really enjoyed Laurie Halse Anderson’s book Speak a few years ago, so when I saw Wintergirls listed I thought I would check it out. Her writing is even more stirring in this novel. It’s lyrical, even poetic at times, and it deals with teens with eating disorders. I would recommend it for older teens, not preteens, though I know plenty of voracious preteen readers would likely enjoy it. It’s a truly heartwrenching novel full of despair, and Anderson obviously did extensive research to provide this realistic glimpse into anorexia.

Both of these books were excellent and I look forward to exploring more from both authors. In fact, I already have the next Enchanted Forest books at home ready to read from the library.

Photo courtesy of Sara S.