Posted on: Sunday, May 26, 2002

Literary picks highlight females

Associated Press

The new guide, "Great Books for Girls" (Ballantine Books Trade Paperback), is sort of a family tree of literature's best heroines.

Kathleen Odean, chairwoman of the 2002 Newbery Award committee, offers more than 600 book suggestions for girls ages 3-14 in an updated version of a 1997 guide.

The main characters in each of the books are "brave, intelligent, dynamic — and female. These girls are not waiting to be rescued; they are doing the rescuing. They fashion their own stories and their own endings," according to the publisher.

Favorite fictitious girls, including Eloise, Harriet the Spy and Nancy Drew, are represented, as are admirable real-life women, such as Helen Keller and Eleanor Roosevelt. Characters who break the "girl" mold such as sports enthusiasts and scientists figure prominently.

Odean also devotes a section of the book to boys — and why they should read about girls so they grow up to treat them as equals.