When I was growing up, I cared far too much about what other people thought of me. I was afraid to reveal my unabashedly dorky self – the one who loved reading fantasy and dreamed of being an author herself someday – for fear of being laughed at. As a result, my favorite protagonists were always the obstinate girls. The passionate girls. The girls who kept trying, no matter how hard things got; who fought to protect themselves and the people they loved. I wanted to be more like them. I still do. But if that isn’t possible, at least I can write them.
I had to start this list with Lyra Belacqua: the definition of a fierce girl who never gives up, even in the face of murder, betrayal, and heartbreak. The Golden Compass(orNorthern Lights, to those of us of a British persuasion) is the first book I can remember reading where I really fell in love with the protagonist. Partly because she’s so good at lying – I’m a terrible liar, I blush every time – and partly because she’s so loyal to the people she loves. Also, I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit trying to decide what form my daemon would take. (Answer: a robin.)
The first volume in Philip Pullman's groundbreaking HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy, now a thrilling, critically acclaimed BBC/HBO television series. First published in 1995, and acclaimed as a modern masterpiece, this first book in the series won the UK's top awards for children's literature.
"Without this child, we shall all die."
Lyra Belacqua and her animal daemon live half-wild and carefree among scholars of Jordan College, Oxford.
The destiny that awaits her will take her to the frozen lands of the Arctic, where witch-clans reign and ice-bears fight.
Her extraordinary journey will have immeasurable consequences far beyond her own world...
I’ve been a fan of Diana Wynne Jones since I was seven. Once I’d discovered her, I tore through her entire back catalogue, but Fire and Hemlock is the book that stuck. It didn’t make complete sense to me at the time, but its atmosphere lingered at the back of my mind for days. Since then I’ve revisited it on a regular basis, and I find something new in each reread. Without giving too much away, it earns its place on this list by virtue of being a semi-retelling of the old Scottish ballad Tam Lin, the entire point of which is a young woman who refuses to quit.
In the mind of a lonely, imaginative girl, who can tell where fiction ends and reality begins? An epic fantasy, spanning nine years...
The fire and hemlock photograph above Polly's bed sparks memories in her that don't seem to exist any more. Halloween; nine years ago; she gatecrashed a funeral party at the big house and met Thomas Lynn for the first time.
Despite the fact that he's an adult, they struck up an immediate friendship, and began making up stories together - stories in which Tom is a great hero, and Polly is his assistant. The trouble is, these…
A mysterious stranger traps teen siblings in a precarious game where each must overcome their embittered past for the other to survive.
This suspenseful, yet winsome novel explores the power of family and forgiveness. But take heed. The truth can cut like shards of glass, especially for those who’d rather…
Confession: by the time this book came out, I was no longer a young adult by even the most elastic definition of the term. So I wasn’t the intended audience, but I fell in love with it anyway. What’s not to love? It depicts the world of Faerie perfectly: not gentle or kind but glamorous, cruel, and full of tricks. To survive in such a world, a human girl would need to be fierce indeed. Enter Jude Duarte, a sword-wielding spy who succeeds largely through her own stubbornness and refusal to give in to fear. Even when her plans fail, she doesn’t let that stop her.
"Lush, dangerous, a dark jewel of a book . . . intoxicating" - Leigh Bardugo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Six of Crows
Of course I want to be like them. They're beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
One terrible morning, Jude and her sisters see their parents murdered in front of them. The terrifying assassin abducts all three…
Graphic novels are a source of wonder to me, mainly because I long to be good enough at drawing to create my own. Indeed, my greatest ambition is for an artist to love one of my books enough to adapt it. So I can’t write a list of fierce-girl books without mentioning Nimona: a shapeshifter who thrives on mayhem and will literally set the board on fire if you beat her at fantasy-world Monopoly. Nimona proves how much emotion and humor it’s possible to pack into a relatively slight number of pages, and also that girls don’t have to be good to be lovable.
Indies Choice Book of the Year * National Book Award Finalist * New York Times Bestseller * New York Times Notable Book * Kirkus Best Book * School Library Journal Best Book * Publishers Weekly Best Book * NPR Best Book * New York Public Library Best Book * Chicago Public Library Best Book The New York Times bestselling graphic novel sensation from Noelle Stevenson, based on her beloved and critically acclaimed web comic. Kirkus says, "If you're going to read one graphic novel this year, make it this one." Nemeses! Dragons! Science! Symbolism! All these and more await in…
"This novel is a boundary-crosser. Although it is a work of fiction, it is well researched and could pass as a memoir or a work of Holocaust history." —New York Jewish Week (JOFA Journal)
My multi-award-winning book is inspired by the Stermer family and other families who hid underground…
I couldn’t end my list without mentioning Katniss Everdeen, one of the best-known protagonists in YA fiction. Though I never cared much about the love triangle in the Hunger Gamesbooks (please don’t hate-mail me, ship fans) I’m in full admiration of Katniss’s persistence and the lengths to which she’s willing to go to protect her family. This is another book I reread every so often, and even though I know what’s coming, the bit where Prim’s name is called and Katniss volunteers as tribute to protect her sister leaves a lump in my throat every time.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before - and survival, for her, is second nature. The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever...
Ever since she can remember, Alyssia has experienced unsettling visions: flashes of four other people’s dark and difficult lives in a world that’s not her own. She’s always believed them to be her brain’s way of filling the void left by the accident that killed her parents and took her memories. That’s why she tries very hard not to think of these imaginary people as friends.
Yet when she wakes up inside one of her own visions, it becomes clear that she was seeing the truth all along. Now, she’s no longer just an observer. Now, she has the chance to change things.
Since losing his mom, thirteen-year-old Jack Wilson has spent most of his time seeing just how much trouble he can get away with so that he feels like a winner at something. But he takes his mischief too far and is faced with the possibility of unbearable consequences. He…
