The Book Search

Strong female characters are one of the things I love about middle grade fiction.  Girls trying to find their way as they grow and mature.  These two are a perfect example of those young women.   The first one is "The Queen's Granddaughter" by Diane Zahler.  I loved her books "The Blackwood Magicians" and "Baker's Magic" so I was excited to read this new one.  This is the story of Blanca, the granddaughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine.  Blanca has been living a happy life with her sister, Uraca, her loving parents, and her new baby sister Eleanor.  Blanca understands that her job is to marry well but at 12, she hopes that it's going to be awhile until she gets married.  Her oldest sister is already married and so when her grandmother shows up at the castle, ready to announce the latest arranged marriage, Blanca doesn't want Uraca to go, so she badmouths her sister to her grandmother.  When her grandmother makes her announcement, it's Blanca,...

I've been so lucky to read some awesome middle grade fiction this week about some interesting, powerful young women, I can't wait to share them with you! The first one is called "Like Vanessa" by Tami Charles.  I was mildly horrified to find that it's categorized as historical fiction because it's set in the 1980s (heeeeyyyy, wait just a cotton pickin' minute.  The 80s are history?  Ok, they are MY history too).  Anyway, mild horror aside, this was a really great story about friendship, finding your true voice, making assumptions about people based on their appearance and working towards a goal.  It's about Vanessa, who is in 8th grade.  She has one true friend, but her friend is finding other interests and Vanessa is worried that they will not remain friends.  Vanessa also finds that she has other interests that her friend isn't so interested in.  Vanessa really wants to be Miss America.  Until now, she didn't think it was possible.  ...