Middle Grade Heroines?
Recently I was reading over at the Nelson Agency blog, yes you’ve seen that blog linked here before, and there was a post talking about some of the things being looked for in the current market. One which caught me by surprise was a need for more middle grade books with strong female heroines. Because I read a lot of urban fantasy, which is rife with the kick butt female stereotype, I felt like there were lots of great female leads out there. Then I got thinking about it. It seems like the strong female tends to be more a young adult and up feature. I could come up with a lot of books and series with strong male protagonists for this age group (Harry Potter, Eragon, Artemis Fowl, FireClaw, Will) but not so many girls. Part of this may be that the middle grade readers in my life are mostly boys, but looking through Amazon and the specific mention in the Nelson blog makes me wonder why this demographic gets skipped this way.
Does girl power only start in high school? Isn’t there a need for confident, strong, females in those early ‘tween years? Or are they only represented by Kim Possible and Hannah Montana?
As the auntie of several girls I find it disturbing to think that there aren’t strong female leads for them to identify with while still dealing with plots and situations which are appropriate to their mindsets and age. So what am I missing? Are there great series out there which have escaped my notice? Or is this truly a void waiting for it’s very own female Harry?
Inquiring minds want to know…or maybe it’s time to dust off some middle grade ideas…
~Jana
