The new issue of Bookslut is up today and includes my column on bookish girls. I really had fun putting this one together - although it did not reveal itself until I had already finished several of the books. Originally A True and Faithful Narrative was going to be part of a column on historical fiction. Kiki Strike was going to be part of my adventure books column (due next month). A Girl Like Che Guevara was slated for a column down the line on teens living lives unknown to western readers (I have Three Wishes, a great book on kids in Israel and Palestine for that column). But then after reading True and Faithful, I read Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters and it clicked that although centuries apart the two protagonists had a lot in common. Meg would have loved to have a dictionary collection like Cornelia - and then when I read about Ananka and the books her family had (and she used) in Kiki Strike, well, It became clear that something was coming together. The arrival of First Impressions just cemented the whole thing (I read that book last, the week before the column was due). Phoebe in The Glow Stone is probably the least obvious choice for the column - she is not a book nut so much as a rock nut, but any character who counts her Rocks and Minerals Guide as something precious was a girl after my own heart.

What I was trying to do with this column was tie these somewhat disparate titles together - create a great set of books for girls who like books (and other bookish girls) that they might not find otherwise. As a group I enjoyed readng them one after another a great deal. Che Guevara is for the bit older (there is some sexual discussion in it) and Cornelia might seem for the younger end of the spectrum, but if you have a 14 year old girl (or know one) these are all killer titles. They celebrate smart and I think that's great - the best part is that these girls are all smart in different ways which will hopefully make a reader or two reconsider themselves and the other kids they know in a new light. What a cool thing that would be - if girls read and thought and changed a bit - if bookish heroines made them better people.

I just love a good bookish heroine, don't you? (Best bookish chick, by far, is Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl #1 and now known as Oracle. Still smart and sexy in Birds of Prey - the comic that has chicks kick ass!)