Kick Ass Girls - awesome YA fiction
Discover Kick Ass Girls in awesome YA fiction! Explore a thrilling list of empowering books featuring fierce heroines who defy the odds and inspire.
Book
Feeling Sorry for Celia
by Jaclyn Moriarty
An epistolary novel uses letters written between teenage friends, refrigerator notes from a crazy mother, and epistles that express the narrator's own internal feelings of self-doubt to weave this bittersweet coming of age story.
Book
The Year of Secret Assignments
by Jaclyn Moriarty
From the author of "Feeling Sorry for Celia" comes this story of three girls and three boys, one of which is a total psycho. It's a story of teenage life as it really feels--only funnier.
Book
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
by Avi
A vicious captain, a mutinous crew -- and a young girl caught in the middle Not every thirteen-year-old girl is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty. But I was just such a girl, and my story is worth relating even if it did happen years ago. Be warned, however: If strong ideas and action offend you, read no more. Find another companion to share your idle hours. For my part I intend to tell the truth as I lived it.
Book
Jacob Have I Loved
by Katherine Paterson
Esau have I hated . . . Sara Louise Bradshaw is sick and tired of her beautiful twin Caroline. Ever since they were born, Caroline has been the pretty one, the talented one, the better sister. Even now, Caroline seems to take everything: Louise's friends, their parents' love, her dreams for the future. For once in her life, Louise wants to be the special one. But in order to do that, she must first figure out who she is . . . and find a way to make a place for herself outside her sister's shadow.
Book
Bridge to Terabithia
by Katherine Paterson
A secret world of their own Jess Aaron's greatest ambition is to be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. He's been practicing all summer and can't wait to see his classmates' faces when he beats them all. But on the first day of school, a new kid, a new girl, boldly crosses over to the boy's side of the playground and outruns everyone. That's not a very promising beginning for a friendship, but Jess and Leslie Burke become inseparable. It doesn't matter to Jess that leslie dresses funny, or that her family has a lot of money -- but no TV. Leslie has imagination. Together, she and Jess create Terabithia, a magical kingdom in the woods where the two of them reign as king and queen, and their imaginations set the only limits. Then one morning a terrible tragedy occurs. Only when Jess is able to come to grips with this tragedy does he finally understand the strength and courage Leslie has given him.
Book
Oathbreakers
by Mercedes Lackey
Evil had cast its shadow over the kingdom of Rethwellan. When Idra, leader of the Sunhawks mercenaries, failed to return from a journey to her home, Tarma and Kethry, warrior and mage, set out in search of their vanished leader.
Book
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
First published in 1865, these endearing tales of an imaginative child's dream world by Lewis Carroll, pen name for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, are written with charming simplicity. While delighting children with a heroine who represents their own thoughts and feelings about growing up, the tale is appreciated by adults as a gentle satire on education, politics, literature, and Victorian life in general. All the delightful and bizarre inhabitants of Wonderland are here: the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat, the hooka-smoking Caterpillar and the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Ugly Duchess. . . and, of course, Alice herself - growing alternately taller and smaller, attending demented tea parties and eccentric croquet games, observing everything with clarity and rational amazement.
Book
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
by Clive Staples Lewis
Four English school children find their way through the back of a wardrobe into the magic land of Narnia and assist Aslan, the golden lion, to triumph over the White Witch, who has cursed the land with eternal winter.
Book
The Abhorsen Trilogy
by Garth Nix
Sabriel and Lirael must battle against ancient evils in order to protect the Old Kingdom and learn of their own destinies.
Book
Fire in the Mist
by Holly Lisle
Magic in her blood and blood in her eye. Take a simple shepherd girl with magic in her blood, raised in the back country, living free. Then destroy her family, but let her get away and grow to magehood. Now, you're in trouble.
Book
The Third Witch
by Rebecca Reisert
In this stirring debut novel, Rebecca Reisert enters the world of Shakespeare's Macbeth, in which a young woman's search for vengeance plunges her into a legendary tale of deceit, murder, and retribution.... I have made my life an arrow, and His heart is my home. I have made my life a blade, and His heart is my sheath....So pledges Gilly, vowing to destroy Macbeth, the most powerful man in medieval Scotland. She escapes from the hut in Birnam Wood in which she has lived for the past seven years, ever since she was taken in by Nettle and Mad Helga -- wise women whose powers are widely feared and reviled. Disguising herself as a servant boy, Gilly finds work in the kitchen of her enemy's castle. Soon she insinuates herself into the lives of Macbeth and his beautiful, dangerous wife, subtly manipulating the forces governing their fate. But as Gilly moves closer to her private revenge, she finds herself at risk when she confronts the startling legacy of a long-concealed heritage.
Book
Sorcery and Cecelia, Or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot
by Patricia C. Wrede
In 1817 in England, two young cousins, Cecilia living in the country and Kate in London, write letters to keep each other informed of their exploits, which take a sinister turn when they find themselves confronted by evil wizards.
Book
The Good Master
by Kate Seredy
A Newbery Honor Book - from the author of The White Stag Jancsi is overjoyed to hear that his cousin from Budapest is coming to spend the summer on his father’s ranch on the Hungarian plains. But their summer proves more adventurous than he had hoped when headstrong Kate arrives, as together they share horseback races across the plains, country fairs and festivals, and a dangerous run-in with the gypsies. In vividly detailed scenes and beautiful illustrations, this Newbery Award-winning author presents an unforgettable world and characters who will be remembered forever. “A genuinely joyous and beautiful book.”—The New York Times
Book
White Steel, Blue Ice and Dusty Swords
by Summer Philo
Aralyn and Zac's lives collide at The Dusty Swords. But this is more than a chance meeting; there are larger forces at work, and they need the combined talents of Zac and Aralyn to tip the balance. Aralyn is an assassin hired to kill Zac, but finds the task a little more difficult than expected. They come to a truce when they discover that they are both immortal, and there is a bigger problem to be faced. Death has gone mad and started to collect immortal souls. Can they put aside their differences long enough to deal with the Mad Death?
Book
Shadows in the Water
by Kathryn Lasky
The two sets of Starbuck twins use their telepathic powers and the aid of some endangered dolphins to help their father catch a gang dumping toxic waste in the Florida Keys.
Book
Mara, Daughter of the Nile
by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
This compelling story of adventure, romance, and intrigue, set in ancient Egypt, was written by the three-time Newbery Honor and Edgar Award winning author Eloise Jarvis McGraw. Mara is a proud and beautiful slave girl who yearns for freedom in ancient Egypt, under the rule of Queen Hatshepsut. Mara is not like other slaves; she can read and write, as well as speak the language of Babylonian. So, to barter for her freedom, she finds herself playing the dangerous role of double spy for two arch enemies—each of whom supports a contender for the throne of Egypt. Against her will, Mara finds herself falling in love with one of her masters, the noble Sheftu, and she starts to believe in his plans of restoring Thutmose III to the throne. But just when Mara is ready to offer Sheftu her help and her heart, her duplicity is discovered, and a battle ensues in which both Mara’s life and the fate of Egypt are at stake. “Dangerous espionage, an unusual love story, and richly drawn background make this a book to capture quick and lasting interest.”—Horn Book “Thoroughly engrossing.”—Kirkus Reviews
Book
Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be courageous and resourceful as she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis. Reprint. Newbery Medal Winner. AB. SLJ. K. H.
Book
One Thousand and One Arabian Nights
by Geraldine McCaughrean
King Shahryar kills a new wife every night, because he is afraid she will stop loving him. But his new bride Shahrazad has a clever plan to save herself. Her nightly stories--of Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba, and many other heroes and villains--are so engrossing that King Shahryar has topostpone her execution again and again... This illustrated edition brings together all the Arabian Nights tales in an original retelling by award-winning author Geraldine McCaughrean.(paperback reissue of ISBN 0-19-274500-X)