The Anti Princess Books?

Cafe Society
1

I’m looking for book suggestions for my 10yo daughter.

She loved the Percy Jackson series, The Hobbit and Harry Potter. I recently introduced her to Divergent and Insurgent and she really enjoyed having a female lead who wasn’t too girly. Lord of the Rings proved a little too challenging for her and she struggled with the old fashioned language in Anne of Green Gables.

I’ve got The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell on order at the library.

Our bookshop is getting in The Underland Chronicles for us.

Just wondering what other great books there are that I could introduce her to? She is reading well beyond her years but I attempt to keep the emotional content at her age level. We do discuss what she is reading and currently she is reading Warm Bodies having declared there is no other book in the world worth her time.

2

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. A well-written series that proves not every good story has a happy ending.

3

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline l’Engle comes to mind.

4

Ramona the Pest.

5

Phantom Tollbooth
The Chrestomanci books by Dianna Wynne Jones or* Howl’s Moving Castle*
The Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett are set at her level. The heroine is non-girly! The first book is The Wee Free Men.
The Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce. The first book is Alanna: The First Adventure. Another non-girly heroine.
Sabriel by Garth Nix. This is the start of a trilogy but I found this book to be the best of the three and can be read alone if desired. Another non-girly heroine.
The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley.

6

Both my 12 yo and 9 yo daughters like the Maximum Ride series, the Michael Scott Alchemyst series, and anything by Rick Riordan. You wanted girl heros, so this doesn’t count, but they also loved The Maze Runner.

And Hunger Games, gah! They are both gaga over anything Hunger Games.

7

Are “anti princess books” books that don’t have princesses in them, or books that subvert the traditional princess role? If the latter, how about Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

Otherwise, some excellent suggestions have already been offered. If you’re specifically looking for fantasy, has she read Narnia? the Oz books? If, on the other hand, you’re looking to get as far as possible from princesses and fantasy, maybe something like Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books?

8

Gotta back up The Hunger Games. Those books absolutely lit up my girls.

9

Jessica Day George’s Dragon Slippers trilogy is good. It starts with a young girl who is being sacrificed to a dragon to save her town and she ends up with a pair of slippers and makes her way to the capital city. From there her adventures in the city, dealing with dragons and trying to realize her dream as a seamstress.

Also by her is Tuesdays at the Castle (and her new one, Wednesdays in the Tower) about the youngest daughter of a king and the magical castle they live in which adds rooms as needed and if it takes a liking to you it makes your room wonderful, but if it doesn’t like you? Well it makes it as uncomfortable as possible.

Tamora Pierce is good in general. Start with The Lioness quartet, about a young noblewoman who wants to become a knight and trades places with her brother who wants to become a sorcerer.

10

Although The Lord of the Rings might be too difficult for her, The Hobbit shouldn’t be. I’d recommend the Green Knowe books by L. M. Boston:

The Children of Green Knowe
The Treasure of Green Knowe
The River at Green Knowe
A Stranger at Green Knowe
An Enemy at Green Knowe
The Stones of Green Knowe

Also, the Psammead books by E. Nesbit:

Five Children and It
The Phoenix and the Carpet
The Story of the Amulet

And the Snarkout Boys books by Daniel Pinkwater:

The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death
The Snarkout Boys and the Baconsburg Horror

11

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman: Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty’s anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen’s Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde: In the good old days, magic was indispensable. But now magic is fading: Drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and magic carpets are used for pizza delivery. Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians—but it’s hard to stay in business when magic is drying up. And then the visions start, predicting the death of the world’s last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer. If the visions are true, everything will change for Kazam—and for Jennifer.

And saveing the best for last, the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. Although the protagonist in this one is male, one of the main supporting characters, Eilonwy, is a not-too-girly heroine. I highly recommend it. Heck, I’d suggest you give it a go yourself leechbabe, if you haven’t already. It’s that good.

By the by, the fact that the first two books in this post feature dragons is purely coincidental. I don’t know that many YA appropriate books, let alone ones with strong female protagonists. But I happened to have read and like these, so.

12

Heinlein’s juveniles.

13

I haven’t read Sabriel, but I’ve read the others (except that I’ve only read Alanna of the Lioness Quartet).

Just about ANYTHING by Diana Wynne Jones. She wrote one novel for adults, that I know of, but for the most part she wrote YA novels. There’s a rape in Dark Lord of Derkholm, so you might want to put that one off for a few years. Jones could not write proper endings to save her life, but for the most part her stories are excellent reading for kids and adults, and many of her female characters are not traditionally feminine. My daughter is dyslexic, and had to struggle to read. She hated reading, but loved to be read to, so I read to her every night. When she got too old for little kid books that could be read aloud in a matter of minutes, I started to read longer books, a chapter per night. She got so involved in the stories of Jones, though, that she decided to give pleasure reading a try. She had her problems, but she learned that she COULD enjoy reading. And this is because of Diana Wynne Jones’ abilities as a storyteller.

The Tiffany Aching books are very good for everyone, no matter the age. So is The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. Pratchett will sneak philosophy into his YA books, to get his young readers to think. Of course, he does the same thing with his books for older readers, too. Good Omens might be a bit too advanced for her right now, but buy a copy and have it available.

I just read Alanna a couple of weeks ago. I found it to be rather predictable, and I probably won’t read the rest of the series, but my 10 year old self would have eaten it up.

The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown are both excellent for her. Both stories have a little romance in them, but it’s of the undying love version, not the steam up the windows version.

Lawrence Watt-Evans has a series of Ethshar novels and stories. For the most part, these stories can be read in any order, though books will occasionally reference characters and occurrences that happen in other stories. If you have a choice, get them in chronological order. She’s too young for the Brown Magician series, and the Annals of the Chosen are best avoided by people of all ages.

When I was that age, I lived to read the next Andre Norton book. I also read a lot of Heinlein juveniles.

14

I’ll echo Hero and the Crown–one of the best works ever.

Also, at that age I enjoyed The Wizard of Earthsea. That series begins without much int he way of female characters, but has some interesting ones as the series progresses.

One I haven’t seen mentioned so far is Ella Enchanted. It’s a fairly interesting retelling of Cinderella and won the Newbery Award for its year.

15

Rick Riordan, author of Percy Jackson, has a newer series called “The Kane Chronicles”. It has a similar premise to Percy Jackson, but with Egyptian mythology instead. It features a brother and sister as PoV characters, and the sister is decidedly not a princess.

16

Lois Lowry has some great books that fit the bill. My daughter (13) and I haven’t read Son yet, but the other three books in that quartet (The Giver, Gathering Blue, and Messenger) are great. The Willoughbys is hilarious, and we loved Gossamer, A Summer to Die, and Number the Stars.

17

In the Suicide Mountains by John Gardner features a wonderful anti-princess.

Is your daughter too “cool” for Pippi Longstocking? Now there’s a gal who could sleep on a mattress with a pea under it, no problem!

18

Almost anything by Robin McKinley, except Sunshine, which is for adult readers.

Tamora Pierce - some are more for juveniles than others, and her last quartet ended pretty darkly. But the Lioness books, the Protector of the Small books, and the Immortals quartets should be okay.

David Edings’ The Belgariad and The Mallorean trilogies.

Brian Jacques’ Redwall series is supposed to be very good, although I haven’t read it.

StG

19

Fair warning: my 10yo girl dislikes girly girl stuff, but also dislikes fantasy (I feel I’ve failed as a parent) and likes “epidemics and depressing stuff.”

In that vein, she lovedFever 1793 and Blue, that latter of which made me want to take the gas pipe just listening to her recount snippets. But they read them at school, so I figure they’re age-appropriate.

She also loves the I Survived series (shark attacks, 9-11, the Titanic - lovely light reading). But really, they are for kids, and might actually be too far below your kid’s reading skills. Mine likes to coast a bit sometimes.

For something more challenging in skill, and more lighthearted in content (but not entirely fluffy bunnies and rainbow-farting unicorns), Carl Hiaasen’s kids’ books are great. She liked Chompthe most.

20

My daughter has very similar taste - she is 13 now. Her favorite series are Rick Riordan’s Greek Mythology (there are two sets), Harry Potter, Maximum Ride, and Hunger Games. Uglies (Scott Westerfield) might be a little old for a ten year old (but so is Hunger Games, which is a strange book with a low lexile score and pretty grown up themes). She is really enjoying the Eragon series right now.

Shannon Hale’s books might be good - kick ass princesses. My daughter ate those up around ten.