Five Teen Books with Strong Female Protagonists
Written By Savvy Auntie Staff Writers
By Colleen Rowe
While these titles feature a female protagonist or a traditionally more feminine adventure, we think teen nephews will like them just as much as nieces will.
The Penelopiad
In high school, almost every school incorporates Homer’s Odyssey as a part of the curriculum. It’s taught time and time again, with its male protagonist, Odysseus, leading the way for his epic journey. What ever happened to Penelope, the wife he left at home, though? Margaret Atwood explains this in The Penelopiad, a novella that was published in 2005. There’s a smartness about Atwood’s writing in this epic tale that empowers women to consider the history of their expected roles, while also influencing them to feel comfortable surpassing them, finding roles that truly fit their intellectuality. There’s a large focus on Penelope and her maids, who were carelessly pushed aside by the suitors in the Odyssey and hardly considered. Atwood is snarky, hilarious, and on point with her modernized version of this famous tale. Consider showing this book to your teenage nieces to give them some classic literary knowledge with a lot of laughs.
Scribbler of Dreams
With the plotline as a familiar allusion to Shakespeare’s play, “Romeo and Juliet,”Scribbler of Dreams is the account of a teenage girl who begins a relationship with someone who doesn’t know who she really is. The female protagonist, Kaitlin Malone, is hateful toward the Crutchfields, a wealthy family who lives in her town. The feud between the Malones and the Crutchfields resembles the conflict between Romeo and Juliet’s families. According to Booklist, "Fans of angst-laden teen romance will be glued to this weepy tale of love and deception. . . . Irresistible.” You can suggest this book to your nieces who are from the ages 12 and 17.
Transformations
You know those classic childhood fairytales you’ve grown accustomed to reading with your nieces and nephews? Maybe some of them you’ve read or watched yourself: Snow White; Sleeping Beauty; Rapunzel; and Red Riding Hood. But you may never have read them like this. Originally, these stories come from The Brothers Grimm, and their tone is much darker than the more modern versions. Anne Sexton rewrote them in poetic form and transformed them into modernized versions with a snarky tone. Her wit is incomparable to what has been done with these tales prior to the release of Sexton’s book, Transformations, originally published in 1971 with a foreword by Kurt Vonnegut.Transformations will grip your teen nieces and nephews with their familiarity of the tales, but will also teach them a lot about confessional, free verse poetry. The poems together build into a singular adventurous plot. The collection itself is entrancing…it pulls you in with its introductory poem titled, “The Gold Key.” The first set of verses leads readers on a mysterious journey to uncover the secret that only The Gold Key unlocks.
This Lullaby
There’s something comically unique but also incredibly soothing about Sarah Dessen’s book, This Lullaby, a New York Times Best Seller published in 2002. Publishers Weekly wrote: “This modern-day romance narrated by a cynical heroine offers a balance of wickedly funny moments and universal teen traumas.” It’s a love story, but a lot of it has to do with loving yourself, and not in a negatively selfish way. The female lead, Remy Starr, lives with an empty shadow around her in the form of a song titled “This Lullaby,” which her dad had written the day she was born. The fictional song became popular within the world that Dessen created. Soon after the song was written, Remy’s father left, leaving Remy with a need to be extra critical with her hilarious cynicism. There’s a tone that a lot of teenagers take with their elders, and even their friends, although the tone of voice shifts with different people, and Dessen captures it well. So well that your nieces will find it hard to forget this book. They might read it twice, or flip through wanting to read those soothing song lyrics again:
“This Lullaby is only a few words, a simple run of chords, quiet here in this spare room, but you can hear it, hear it, wherever you may go, even if I let you down, this lullaby plays on...”
The Other Side of Dark
In 1986, The Other Side of Dark, written by Joan Lowery Nixon, was published. Formally sorted into the genres of “children’s literature,” “mystery,” and “fiction,” this book is perfect for teenagers. This book really helps teenagers to understand perspective. Although its darker tone is not initially uplifting, the rebuilding of this teen’s life will be. Its mystery will keeps nieces and nephews interested, and before they know it, they’ll have read the whole thing.
Published: October 22, 2014
Photo: Feelart