200 Cool girls

I posted earlier about the list of cool boys from children's literature. So I had to go through the list of 200 cool girls.


What struck me, as I read through this list, was how few of these books I'd read, or even heard of. Not sure what to think about that. But boys read boy books, and I think that's one reason that Joanna Rowling wrote as "J.K."

The list of stuff I've read is rather sparse:

Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
I did read these two as an adult, but but must say that I came away with a weak impresssion of Alice as a character, instead she was the point of view, say.


Lyra from the His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
Lyra absolutely rocks. Need I mention I love these books. When we first meet her she attacks first (questions later) cool boy Will in a flurry of fisticuffs. Beautiful witches, a physicist, a noble talking bear and a Texan aviator become their friends. By the end of book three god has suffered an ignominous death, and Will and Lyra save the universe by having sex. If that doesn't make you want read them you're beyond hope.

Hermione Granger from Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
Much ink has been spilt over Harry and friends, and I can't add much.
But the strength of these books is Rowling's focus on character - you can see this in her very deliberate choices of her characters' names. Hermione (via Shakespeare, I believe) is unique and unusual, and the comic struggles at how to pronounce it make a metaphor for the experience of getting to know her.


Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird
Scout (Jean Louise) was the essence of cool from the get-go. She called her father by his given name, learned to read at the age of four, and, on first reading (I wasn't paying close attention) I was confused whether she was a girl or a boy. And I have a friend J.L. who I call Scout.

On the positive side, I did add some more titles to the need-to-read list. Lemony Snickett seems to have moved to the top of that.


Related - a topic I obviously care about: Young Adult Books that Adults will Appreciate.