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Top Ten Girl Power Books: Picture Books & Early Readers
Princess Elizabeth
from The Paper Bag Princess written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko
Elizabeth is no ordinary princess. Munsch takes a simple quest tale and turns it on its head. The dragon destroys the castle and carries off Prince Ronald! It is up to Princess Elizabeth to rescue him, which she does with humor and wit.
Daisy
from Here Come the Girl Scouts! written by Shana Corey, illustrated by Hadley Hooper
Juliette Gordon Low, Daisy, saw that boys were getting more opportunities than young girls, so she decided she wanted to give young girls the chance to have the same adventures that young men had and nothing was going to get in her way. This was the birth of Girl Scouts which has lasted over 100 years and still allows young ladies to have adventures and make a difference.
Jane Goodall
from Me…Jane written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell
Jane Goodall is a pioneer in primatology, anthropology and ethology and all of it started when she was a young girl and dreamed of a life of helping animals like her stuffed chimp Jubilee.
Babymouse
from Babymouse: Cupcake Tycoon (and many others) written by Jennifer L. Holm, illustrated by Matthew Holm
Babymouse won’t let anything get in her way for getting what she wants. Although there are times that Babymouse can be self-centered and sometimes makes bad choices, she always ends up doing what is right including saving the library.
Marty McGuire
from Marty McGuire and Marty McGuire Digs Worms! written by Kate Messner, illustrated by Brian Floca
Marty would rather play Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey with her friend Annie or try to catch frogs than pretend to be a princess. Marty is a strong, independent, funny, smart young woman who I wish I’d been friends with when I was younger.
Jennet MacKenzie
from Tam Lin written by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Charles Mikolaycak
Feisty Jennet MacKenzie knows no fear. She sets out to save her ancestral home from the Queen of the Faeries, and finds and rescues her true love along the way.
Velma Gratch
from Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly written by Alan Madison, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes
Velma is the youngest of the Gratch sisters but she wants to be known for who she is apart from her older sisters. Finally, on a trip to the butterfly garden, she discovers that by being herself, she’ll discover a way to stand out.
Molly Lou Melon
from Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon written by Patty Lovell, illustrated David Catrow
Molly Lou Melon is proud of her quirky self until she moves to a new town and a new school and has to contend with Ronald Durkin. With the memory of her grandmother’s words in mind, Molly Lou Melon doesn’t let Ronald Durkin shake her.
Nancy
From Fancy Nancy: Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth (and many others) written by Jane O’Connor, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser
Nancy is determined to take everything in her world and make it fancy – she adds tiaras and glitter and anything sparkly to her wardrobe. She knows who she is and with the help of her family, can do anything she sets her mind to – even solve mysteries!
Annie
from the Magic Tree House: Pirates Past Noon (and many others) written by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Sal Murdocca
Jack and Annie are a brother and sister duo who are sent on adventures into the past and future. Annie is the impetuous, adventurous soul; dragging her bookish brother into and out of countless scraps.
Kellee Moye teaches middle school reading in Orlando, FL, Jennifer Vincent is a national board certified teacher in Illinois and Maria Selske is an elementary gifted resource teacher in Pennsylvania. Both Jen and Kellee blog at Teach Mentor Texts and Maria blogs at Maria’s Melange. This blog post came along because we all kept finding great girl protagonists and we wanted to share our favorites.
Nerdy Book Club 
Thanks for this helpful post. I read this one mostly looking through the eyes of a parent of daughters. Great choices here.
Great! It’s so important for girls to have great role models. I think it’s awesome for boys to see that girls are awesome though, too. 🙂
Great list! Gives me lots of ideas for sharing with nieces and for contrast during gender studies in my AP class. Thanks!
Yes! I agree. This list just made my shopping much easier for my niece’s upcoming birthday. 🙂 Thanks!
All great examples of strong girl characters. I especially love the message about being proud to be yourself in Molly Lou Melon.
Yes! I’d love to hear what you do in that class. I’ve been delving much more into my own sense of feminism over the past few years. If you are interested, check out Ink Stained Amazons by Jennifer Stuller. I wrote a blog post about reading that book, but it is on my “old” blog and I need to migrate it to the new one. It’s about the rise and fall of the female hero in comics, tv, fiction, etc. VERY worthwhile reading.
I loved this post and want to share these characters with my nearly-three-year-old son so that his vision of girlhood includes strength. Not that his older sister would have it any other way…(In my classroom Babymouse has quite a following).
I’m right there with you on this. I can hardly wait to dive into the ones that we’ve missed here with my 6 year old son. 🙂
I’m right there with you on this. I can hardly wait to dive into the ones that we’ve missed here with my 6 year old son. 🙂
Love that! I have two boys and I make sure their diet includes lots of strong girls. Changing the attitude of girls is vital, but you can’t change the world if you only change the girls.
I agree! The message are great for boys and girls. I think boys and girl can both engage with the stories but I do think we have to raise boys who realize girls can be strong and smart and independent.
What about Fashion Kitty, by Charise Mericle Harper?
There are many others and we debated about our top 10. I ‘m sure Fashion Kitty is a great example as well.
I prefer Just Grace or Cupcake from Cherise Mericle Harper for good girl power books. Kellee is right, there are so many books that could have made our list.
Excellent choices! I requested the 2 that I was not familiar with. Thanks for sharing! Now you have me wondering who else I might add to this list?!
We also plan to do some other posts for different age levels. I’m excited to get started on them!
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Molly Lou Melon is one of my absolute favorite picture book characters, and she often goes unrecognized. I get so excited when I see her pop up on somebody’s list. I also just really became introduced to Shana Corey and I’m working my way through every book of hers I can get my hands on. All fantastic stories and strong female roles. Thanks for this list!
You’ll be excited to hear there is a new Molly Lou book coming in the fall – HAVE FUN, MOLLY LOU MELON. It celebrates her unique sense of creative play.
i loved this list. May have to do a girl-power display in the library with these!
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What a fantastic list, and what a lot of books to add to our reading list!