Awesome girl protagonists abound in speculative fiction for young readers:
- smart and compassionate Meg from A Wrinkle in Time
- tough and passionate Katsa from Graceling
- resourceful Katniss from The Hunger Games
- stubborn but reliable Charmain from The House of Many Ways
Plenty of boy heroes have also found fame:
- headstrong Harry Potter
- reluctant and lovable Percy Jackson
- crafty Artemis Fowl
- soulful Will from The Dark is Rising
It seems to me that girl heroes tend to be valued for their smarts and their compassion, while boys are held up as daring (even reckless)–but it could just be that my presuppositions color my perspective. What do you think–are there general differences between boy and girl heroes? Who are your favorite girl or boy heroes?
Parker Peevyhouse thinks L’Engle’s Meg is pretty cool.
Parker Peevyhouse
lindajoysingleton
Joni Sensel
Chris Eboch
Nick
Greg R. Fishbone
I find it interesting that, on the lists above, two of the four boys’ names are in the titles of the books about them, but I rarely see girl’s names in the titles of books. I wonder if this is to alert boys (who are almost always reluctant readers) to the fact that it is a book about a boy and thus of interest to them?
I think girls do tend to be lauded more for intelligence than boys in speculative fiction, at least in the fantasy realm. That’s a generalization of course, as there are always girls who break out of the mold, such as Alanna for Tamora Pierce’s Alanna series (as well as most of the other girls in Tamora Pierce’s books). And wasn’t Artemis Fowl praised for his high intellect, where as the girl protagonist of those books, Holly Black, praised for her daring deeds?
Still, when fantasy is built upon fairytales and fairytales are full of adventurous men and astute women, I think it’s obvious why these stereotypes persist.
You’re right–Artemis Fowl is all about smarts.
I can think of a couple of series with girls’ names in the titles (Flora Segunda, Theodosia Throckmorton) but I wonder if authors shy away from this so that their books will be more boy-friendly?
My favorite boy hero is Taran from The Book of Three et al. by Lloyd Alexander, who defies your model above!
My favorite recent girl hero is Magpie from Laini Taylor’s Blackbringer…
To early in the morning to be truly thoughtful, so I will stop.
Many times girls are heroes in spec fiction when they “break out of the girl mold”.
Boys are heroes when they show that they have compassionate human feelings while still saving the day.
Okay, I realize these are generalizations. But anyway. Just my thoughts!
I really enjoyed the female heroes, Nnedi Okorafor created in her two books, Ejii in the The Shadow Speaker and Zahrah the WindSeeker. (and her name is in the title) Zahrah, I liked because she had to find her bravery along the way. Ejii, because she decided to do what’s right even though it upset every one including her mother.
I like Lyra, from the His Dark Materials books.
Carman’s Atherton series has a headstrong boy and girl, Reeves’ Hungry City Chronicles has nicely matched characters: I don’t know that this holds true more often than we would think. My favorite girl– definitely Alanna. And I do love Tom from The Last Apprentice series.