Dear Feministing Community,
I am a Special Education teacher who works with young adults with Emotional Disturbance and other mental health issues and out of my eight students, I have one young woman. This young woman has severe depression and is extremely quiet but as of Friday, has opened up to me and asked for advice. I tried not to jump for joy when she said quietly while we were shooting the basketball around, "Miss Leonard, can I ask you for advice?"
Anyway, so I've earned this young woman's trust and I would like to start working on empowering her as a woman. Do you have any recommendations for books for the budding young feminist or any ideas on curriculum for a "Girl Power"-type class? I have been researching all weekend and haven't found much of anything. PLEASE HELP! I am desperate to help this young woman overcome her timidness and find her voice. She's so smart and so capable but like all of my students, lack the encouragement from home and/or a strong family support system.
Thank you in advance for your help!
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Tamora Peirce is a great feminist YA author. I grew up loving the original Tortall series-- the Alanna books and the Daine books. Many more have come out since then that I haven't read, but I think they all have similar themes.
I might thing of more later...
Second that, the Tamora Pierce books are great. :D
Also, if you can get them outside Australia, the Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody (fantasy).
Good luck!
I second this.
In fact, I think YA fantasy can be very empowering for young women because it gives them a way to deal with feeling different or oppressed. Fantasy also teaches kids how to deal with evil in the world. Many of these novels have young heroines that have hidden talents and who deal with a hostile world in unique ways. And lots just have good old fashioned adventure.
Other YA fantasy authors include Tanith Lee, Anne McCaffery, Cynthia Voigt, Phillip Pullman.
Yes, so much so! Tamora Pierce is still one of my favourite authors. She writes brilliant feminist YA fantasy.
Tamora Pierce and Philip Pullman are still two of my favorite authors. I read their books all through elementary and middle school. (I'm in high school now, and my friends and I still love them.) I also recommend The Blue Girl by Charles DeLint (urban fantasy with fairies and ghosts and soul-eaters, mostly focusing on a friendship between two girls. I think I fell in love when the school bully asked the main character "What are you, gay?" and she answered "What are you, homophobic?"), A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (Victorian fantasy set in a girls' boarding school. The author is a self-proclaimed feminist), The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (very funny book about a girl who has to win her brother back from the queen of the fairies), Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (deals with some interesting issues of body image and society's perception of beauty), or any of Justine Larbalestier or Holly Black's books. There's also a great anthology of YA fantasy called Firebirds, edited by Sharyn November. Lots of female authors and characters.
I'm not sure how age-appropriate this is (it's pretty lengthy and has some kind of adult stuff in it), but I read Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley last year and LOVED it. (I was 14 at the time.) It's basically a feminist retelling of the King Arthur legends. I felt like I could identify with the main character (Morgan le Fay, called Morgaine in this version) more than any other fictional characters I'd read about. From what you've written about your student, I think she might feel the same way.
You might also find some good recommendations on The Hathor Legacy. It's a feminist pop culture blog that has lots of good book reviews.
That list ended up being much, much longer than I expected... Hope you find something useful! Good luck.