Classics for Girls: Nancy Drew to Little House
Book Series Featuring Strong Young Woman
Sep 19, 2008
Books can become a part of a person's life through the enjoyment they offer. The characters become good friends and readers want to visit them again and again. Here's four series for teenage girls featuring strong female protagonists.
Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew books first appeared in 1930. The books were written by a group of ghost writers using the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. The series is about Nancy Drew, an eighteen year old girl who enjoys solving mysteries and crimes. She is often aided by her detective father, boyfriend and two best friends. Her adventures have taken her all over the United States and even to England. There are 173 books in the original series, with three spin off series being developed as well. The stories have changed over the years to reflect the changes in a young woman since 1930; however, Nancy is still the strong young woman she always was.
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott is the author of number of books, but five in particular feature strong young women. The first three (Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys) are semi autobiographical. The books tell the story of Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth from teenager through adulthood. Jo, Louisa's literary counterpart, is a strong young woman fighting against what is expected of women in the 1800s. The other two books (Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom) are the stories of Rose, an orphan who is sent to live with two maiden aunts in a village where her eight boy cousins also live. She must find her way in the noisy group and does so with strength and grace. Alcott's Jo and Rose are girls worthy of reading by girls today.
Little House
Laura Ingalls Wilder, with the urging of her daughter Rose, wrote the much loved Little House books in the 1930s. The stories based on Laura's own experiences as a girl growing up in a pioneer family. The series of books begins with Little House in the Big Woods which tells the story of four year old Laura and her family living in Wisconsin. The books in the series follow Laura and her family through many states and until Laura is a married woman in the final book of the series, The First Four Years. The stories while fiction do in fact offer a glimpse of what life was like for pioneers in the 1800s in the United States. Other books about Laura and the women in her family have also been written.
LM Montgomery's Anne
Lucy Maud Montgomery is the author of over 100 works but perhaps her best loved books for girls is the Anne Shirley series. The series starts with Anne of Green Gables, which is the story of eleven year old Anne an orphan who goes to live with Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert on a farm in Prince Edward Island Canada. The Cuthberts had originally hoped for a boy to help on the farm, but learned to love the strong willed Anne very quickly. The series follows Anne's life through age 53, with the last Rilla of Ingleside features Anne's youngest daughter. Throughout the entire series Anne's strength helps her with her many trials.
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