Strong Girls

Read about girls who find the strength to deal with tough situations

Showing 1 - 20 of 22  There are a total of 59 valid entries on the list.

1. Smile

Book cover for Smile.
Description:
Raina Telgemeier's #1 New York Times bestselling, Eisner Award-winning graphic memoir based on her childhood!

Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth. What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there's...
Book cover for Chasing Augustus.
Description:
During a rough year in which she was placed in the care of her prickly grandfather after her father suffered a stroke, Rosie embarks on a search for her missing dog after he is given away by her estranged mother.
Book cover for Betty before X.
Description:
Raised by her aunt until she is six, Betty, who will later marry Malcolm X, joins her mother and stepfamily in 1940s Detroit, where she learns about the civil rights movement.
Book cover for The first rule of punk.
Description:
Twelve-year-old María Luisa O'Neill-Morales (who really prefers to be called Malú) reluctantly moves with her Mexican-American mother to Chicago and starts seventh grade with a bang--violating the dress code with her punk rock aesthetic and spurning the middle school's most popular girl in favor of starting a band with a group of like-minded weirdos.
Book cover for Stef Soto, taco queen.
Description:
"Mexican-American Stef Soto is hoping to break free from her overprotective parents and embarrassing reputation from her family's taco truck business, but she soon learns that family, friendship, and the taco truck are important and wonderful parts of her life." --
Book cover for The great Gilly Hopkins.
Description:
"Eleven-year-old Gilly has been stuck in more foster families than she can remember, and she's disliked them all. She has a reputation for being brash, brilliant, and completely unmanageable, and that's the way she likes it. So when she's sent to live with the Trotters--by far the strangest family yet--she knows it's only a temporary problem. Gilly decides to put her sharp mind to work to get out of there fast. She's determined to no longer be a...
Book cover for Howl's moving castle.
Description:
Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl's castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless...
Book cover for Mockingbird.
Description:
Ten-year-old Caitlin, who has Asperger's Syndrome, struggles to understand emotions, show empathy, and make friends at school, while at home she seeks closure by working on a project with her father.

9. Rules

Book cover for Rules.
Description:
Frustrated at life with an autistic brother, twelve-year-old Catherine longs for a normal existence but her world is further complicated by a friendship with an young paraplegic.
Book cover for The thing about luck.
Description:
Just when twelve-year-old Summer thinks nothing else can possibly go wrong in a year of bad luck, an emergency takes her parents to Japan, leaving Summer to care for her little brother while helping her grandmother cook and do laundry for harvest workers.
Book cover for Sammy Keyes and the hotel thief.
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Description:
Thirteen-year-old Sammy's penchant for speaking her mind gets her in trouble when she involves herself in the investigation of a robbery at the "seedy" hotel across the street from the seniors' building where she is living with her grandmother.
Book cover for The magic half.
Description:
With older twin brothers on one side and younger twin sisters on the other, Miri feels left out in her own family. But one afternoon, in her tiny attic bedroom, Miri finds a mysterious piece of glass. And when she peeks through it, something strange happens. Miri is suddenly face-to-face with Molly, a girl just her age but from the past, a girl that insists this is her room and that Miri has come to save her. This is the something special both Miri...
Book cover for Ella enchanted.
Series:
Ella enchanted volume 1.
Description:
In this novel based on the story of Cinderella, Ella struggles against the childhood curse that forces her to obey any order given to her. At birth, Ella of Frell was given the gift of obedience by a fairy. Ella soon realizes that this gift is little better than a curse, for how can she truly be herself if at any time anyone can order her to hop on one foot, or cut off her hand, or betray her kingdom--and she'll have to obey? Ella's quest to break...
Book cover for Esperanza rising.
Description:
When Esperanza and Mama are forced to flee the bountiful region of Aguascalientes, Mexico, to a Mexican farm labor camp in California, they must adjust to a life without the fancy dresses and servants they were accustomed to on Rancho de las Rosas. Now they must confront the challenges of hard work, acceptance by their own people, and economic difficulties brought on by the Great Depression. When Mama falls ill and a strike for better working conditions...
Book cover for One crazy summer.
Series:
Gaither sisters volume 1.
Description:
In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.
Book cover for Dealing with dragons.
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Description:
Bored with traditional palace life, a princess goes off to live with a group of dragons and soon becomes involved with fighting against some disreputable wizards who want to steal away the dragons' kingdom.
Book cover for Number the stars.
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Description:
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.
Book cover for The detective's assistant.
Description:
"In 1859, eleven-year-old Nell goes to live with her aunt, Kate Warne, the first female detective for Pinkerton's National Detective Agency. Nell helps her aunt solve cases, including a mystery surrounding Abraham Lincoln, and the mystery of what happened to Nell's own father"--Provided by publisher.
Book cover for The breadwinner.
Series:
Description:
Because the Taliban rulers of Kabul, Afghanistan, impose strict limitations on women's freedom and behavior, eleven-year-old Parvana must disguise herself as a boy so that her family can survive after her father's arrest.
Book cover for Full cicada moon.
Description:
In 1969 twelve-year-old Mimi and her family move to an all-white town in Vermont, where Mimi's mixed-race background and interest in "boyish" topics like astronomy make her feel like an outsider.