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Girls Kicking Ass With Their Brains: Guest Post by Sarah Stevenson

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Let’s talk about girls who kick ass today. But let’s not focus entirely on the girls who are kicking ass when it comes to power and physical prowess. Instead, let’s hear about the girls who are smart, clever, savvy individuals. Sarah Stevenson will talk about her favorite smart girls who kick ass with their brains — and bonus, this post is definitely for those seeking to hear more about girls in genre fiction being fiercely intelligent. 

Sarah Jamila Stevenson is a writer, artist, graphic designer, introvert, closet geek, good eater, struggling blogger, lapsed piano player, ukulele noodler, household-chore-ignorer and occasional world traveler. Her previous lives include spelling bee nerd, suburban Southern California teenager, Berkeley art student, underappreciated temp, and humor columnist for a video game website. Throughout said lives, she has acquired numerous skills of questionable usefulness, like intaglio printmaking, Welsh language, and an uncanny knack for Mario Tennis. She lives in Northern California with her husband and two cats. She is the author of three YA novels: The Latte Rebellion (2011), Underneath(2013), and The Truth Against the World (forthcoming June 2014). Visit her atwww.SarahJamilaStevenson.com.





I could not be more thrilled that my Kidlitosphere compadre Kelly invited me to participate in Women’s History Month over here at STACKED—so the first thing I want to say is thanks for having me! I’m excited to have the opportunity to talk books (obvs. one of my favorite subjects in the universe) and I’m even more excited to talk about girls in YA fiction. I mean, it is an amazing time to be a girl character in YA fiction. We girls rock on the page. We win gladiatorial-style fights to the death. We compete with the boys—and hold our own—at everything from swords to sorcery to straight-out survival. Just ask Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games) or Katsa (Graceling), Alanna the Lioness or Jacky “Bloody Jack” Faber: Girls Kick Ass.

As you can see from that list, I really like reading about girls who are strong and accomplished and quick, who use powers both physical and supernatural to survive and thrive. But as an author who (so far, anyway) writes characters who are far more human than superhuman, I’m also a fan of girl characters who use cleverness and intelligence to make their way, whether it’s book learnin’ or street smarts. It’s a running theme in my own books, too. Asha, the narrator of my first book The Latte Rebellion, is bright and academic, but her bright ideas also land her in major hot water. Fortunately, she’s clever enough to swim rather than sink. We need realistic, believable girl characters (and guys!) to show us that brainpower is just as important as physical strength, and sometimes more so. So, for women’s history month, I present you with my list of Favorite YA Girl Characters Who Kick Ass With Their Brains. (And not just with their ass-kicking boots. Though I would dearly love a pair of those…).

Can I quickly just say—this was SO HARD. There are a lot of amazing, brainy YA characters. I noticed that many of these ladies have multiple books, which probably made them more memorable and likely to stick in my head, since I’ve gotten to spend time with them over multiple adventures. You may also notice that there are middle grade books on this list, too: I just couldn’t bear to leave out some younger female protagonists simply because they’re tweens. They are simply too awesome to ignore. So here you go, in no particular order:

1. Jacky Faber

Yes, I already mentioned her above under girls who kick (physical) ass, but honestly? It’s Jacky’s cleverness that is her true appeal for me. It isn’t just that she can hold her own physically, thanks to the School of Hard Knocks, but the fact that she’s smart enough to successfully do the crazy things she does, from disguising herself as a ship’s boy in the first book to, in some of the more recent Bloody Jack volumes, penning and organizing stage performances and, basically, running her own business. (Even if some of that business is slightly shady, perhaps a bit piratical…)

2. Hattie Brooks

In Hattie Big Sky, Hattie Brooks was driven to prove herself capable and practical, and in the sequel, Hattie Ever After, she’s driven to prove herself intellectually capable in a world that is still very much a man’s world. A lot of her long-term success—in my mind—comes from learning her limitations, but also learning that those limitations are due to factors beyond her control. There are certain things women can’t do during the time period she lives in, but more than that, there are just things that humans can’t always do, and sometimes life doesn’t work out the way you expect it to. Yet she carries on, and it’s her determination and smarts and willingness to work hard that get here where she needs to be, and where she wants to be: on the reporting staff of a newspaper, at a time when being a “woman reporter” was rare.

3. Frankie Landau-Banks

Oh, wow. I can’t say much about Frankie without giving away the plot of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, but she is one of my favorite characters for sheer moxie and mischief and the smarts not to get caught. My character Asha would absolutely worship Frankie. And I can’t help but love the whole “least likely suspect” scenario, in which the academic girl everyone thinks is probably boring and normal is hiding a whole secret life. Please feel free to assume there is a psychological explanation for this involving wishful thinking and/or vicarious enjoyment because you’re probably right.

4. Flora Segunda


Flora! She has to save the world by finding out who she really is—the introspective mystery that involves her in a larger web of intrigue. Definitely the type of plot I gravitate towards, and as a character, she is unique, quirky (okay, downright bizarre at times) but always, always searching and wondering and trying. And it isn’t just Flora, but her entire world that lends itself to Girls Kicking Ass. The alternate world she lives in is matriarchal, and women tend to run things, so it’s a very strong-female-oriented fantasy setting in Flora Segunda, Flora’s Dare, and Flora’s Fury. Dare, win, or disappear!

5. Seraphina Dombegh

In the more recent fantasy novel Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, the title character is a musical genius, but she also wields a very formidable and logical intelligence—one which, in her world, is generally associated more with dragons. And dragons are not exactly universally loved for it, in this scenario. Seraphina’s unusual dragon-like skills draw the wrong kind of attention, but they also make her a perfect candidate for bringing humans and dragons together for mutual understanding. Of course, she’s got to solve a murder mystery first…

6. Meg Murry


How could I have this list without Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved Meg Murry, who is practically the original Girl Who Kicks Ass With Her Brain? I mean that almost literally. In A Wrinkle in Time, it’s Meg who saves her brother, her family, and saves the human race, too. I was reminded of how much I love Meg when I read the recent graphic novel adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time by Hope Larson—Meg is smart and science-minded, a reader and a thinker, and as a kid reading this, I was transfixed by a heroine who felt so much more “like me,” who had adventures even if she wasn’t a daredevil, and who was brave and full of heart.

7. Theodosia Throckmorton

For an amazing middle grade heroine, I love Theodosia Throckmorton, star of Robin LaFevers’ series by the same name. She’s a budding archaeologist and an expert on all things Egyptian—both natural and supernatural. Her knowledge of Egyptology and hieroglyphs is rivaled only by her ability to defuse curses and detect evil magic.

8. Dewey Kerrigan







In The Green Glass Sea and White Sands, Red Menace by Ellen Klages, Dewey’s father is a scientist working on the Manhattan Project, out in the New Mexico desert in 1943. Dewey is mechanically-minded, loves numbers and patterns, and isn’t as easy with people…but she finds a place in this world of scientists, and her intelligence helps her ultimately figure out not just what her father is working on, but also how to be herself.

9. Gilda Joyce

Another really fun middle grade series is the Gilda Joyce books by Jennifer Allison. Gilda is a Psychic Investigator and gets to solve all sorts of entertaining mysteries. Even better, she gets to spend the summer as an intern at the International Spy Museum, which is a real place and I want to go there.

10. Lindy Sachs

Lindy is the hero of The Short Seller by Elissa Brent Weisman. She’s only a seventh grader, but it turns out she has a rather unexpected and major talent for day trading on the stock market. But it’s not just talent alone—she makes a point of reading and learning about stocks, and her extracurricular studies start to pay off. Until, of course, havoc ensues.

And there you go! I’m sure I’ve missed a few and will kick myself in my own ass later for it, but these are definitely some of my absolute favorite brainiac girls in YA fiction. If you haven’t read about their adventures, you’re missing out.

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Sarah Jamila Stevenson is the author of The Latte Rebellion, Underneath, and the forthcoming (June) novel The Truth Against the World. 

Novel/Graphic Novel Hybrids: A Reading List

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I don’t think it’s necessarily a trend in young adult fiction, but I’ve noticed recently more traditional novels are featuring graphic novel elements to them. Interspersed within the text are illustrations that either help tell the story or add an additional element to the storytelling (and sometimes both at once). Since getting new readers into graphic novels can be challenging, these illustrated/hybrid novels might be a way to encourage trying another method of storytelling. Likewise, these can be great books for those readers who are the opposite — adding the graphic element to a traditional novel can persuade those who are heavy graphic novel readers to try more “traditional” novels.

Maybe most importantly, though, these books are fun. They offer new ways into stories, and work toward building and enhancing curiosity. Why did this particular scene get an illustration? What significance does this particular image mean? Is it telling the reader something visually that cannot possibly be expressed through written words? Is the character telling the story an artist him or herself and the graphic elements are “their” creations and not the work of the author/illustrator?

Here is a handful of these hybrid novels, including a couple that aren’t out yet but will be coming out soon. If you know of other books that fit this category, we’d love to know about them in the comments. There’s no restriction on when the books came out because this is a smaller range of books than most. As long as it’s young adult and traditionally published, we want to know about them. Note that these books feature illustrations, too — they aren’t books including photographs, letters, or other ephemeral items (which is why books like Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children are not included). 

All descriptions come from WorldCat unless otherwise noted. 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, with illustrations by Ellen Forney: Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Year of the Beasts by Cecil Castellucci and Nate Powell: Fifteen-year-old Tessa tries to be happy when her crush, Charlie, falls for her younger sister, Lulu, and it becomes easier after she begins a secret relationship with Jasper, a social outcast who lives next door to Tessa’s best friend.

Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard (illustrations by Hubbard): Bria, an aspiring artist just graduated from high school, takes off for Central America’s La Ruta Maya, rediscovering her talents and finding love.

Winger by Andrew Smith (illustrations by Smith): Two years younger than his classmates at a prestigious boarding school, fourteen-year-old Ryan Dean West grapples with living in the dorm for troublemakers, falling for his female best friend who thinks of him as just a kid, and playing wing on the Varsity rugby team with some of his frightening new dorm-mates.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness: Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill–an ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, illustrated by Keith Thompson: In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically engineered beasts.



Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor, with illustrations by Jim Di Bartolo: Three short stories about kissing, featuring elements of the supernatural.

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, with illustrations by Julian Crouch: An unlikely teenager risks all to expose the truth about a heralded moon landing. What if the football hadn’t gone over the wall. On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesn’t want anyone to know. But Standish Treadwell–who has different-colored eyes, who can’t read, can’t write, Standish Treadwell isn’t bright–sees things differently than the rest of the “train-track thinkers.” So when Standish and his only friend and neighbor, Hector, make their way to the other side of the wall, they see what the Motherland has been hiding. And it’s big.

Broken by Elizabeth Pulford, with illustrations by Angus Gomes (available August 27): Zara has one immediate and urgent goal, and it is to find her brother, Jem. She faces a few complications, though, not the least of which is searching for him in her subconscious while she is in a coma. Zara’s coma has pulled her into the world of Jem’s favorite comic-book hero. But no matter how quickly Zara literally draws her own escape, she is taunted deeper into the fantastical darkness by the comic’s villain, Morven. All the while she is caught between the present with visits from friends and family in the hospital and the past by flashbacks of a traumatic event long ago forgotten.
The search for her brother may help Zara see the light, but in order to find him, she must face her innermost secrets first. (Description via Goodreads).

Chasing Shadows by Swati Avasthi, with illustrations by Craig Phillips (available September 24): Before: Corey, Holly, and Savitri are one unit—fast, strong, inseparable. Together they turn Chicago concrete and asphalt into a freerunner’s jungle gym, ricocheting off walls, scaling buildings, leaping from rooftops to rooftop. But acting like a superhero doesn’t make you bulletproof. After: Holly and Savitri are coming unglued. Holly says she’s chasing Corey’s killer, chasing revenge. Savitri fears Holly’s just running wild—and leaving her behind. Friends should stand by each other in times of crisis. But can you hold on too tight? Too long? In this intense novel, Swati Avasthi creates a gripping portrait of two girls teetering on the edge of grief and insanity. Two girls who will find out just how many ways there are to lose a friend…and how many ways to be lost. (Description via Goodreads). 
The Well’s End by Seth Fishman, illustrated by Kate Beaton (February 25, 2014): Mia Kish is afraid of the dark. And for good reason. When she was a toddler she fell deep into her backyard well only to be rescued to great fanfare and celebrity. In fact, she is small-town Fenton,Colorado’s walking claim to fame. Not like that helps her status at Westbrook Academy, the nearby uber-ritzy boarding school she attends. A townie is a townie. Being nationally ranked as a swimmer doesn’t matter a lick. But even the rarefied world of Westbrook is threated when emergency sirens start blaring and the school is put on lockdown, quarantined and surrounded by soldiers who seem to shoot first and ask questions later. Only when confronted by a frightening virus that ages its victims to death in a manner of hours does Mia realize she may only just be beginning to discover what makes Fenton special. The answer is behind the walls of the Cave, aka Fenton Electronics. Mia’s dad, the director of Fenton Electronics, has always been secretive about his work. But unless Mia is willing to let her classmates succumb to the strange illness, she and her friends have got to break quarantine, escape the school grounds, and outsmart armed soldiers to uncover the truth about where the virus comes from and what happened down that well. The answers they find just might be more impossible than the virus they are fleeing. 
If you’re curious about a sneak peek at the Fishman book, there’s a nice piece with illustrations over at io9.
A few middle grade authors to have in your back pocket who have done these sorts of books include Neil Gaiman (though Coraline and The Graveyard Book), Philip Reeve (Larklight), Brian Selznick (Wonderstruck), and Tony DiTerlizzi (The Search for WondLa). 

The Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda

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Thirteen year old Ash Mistry, along with his little sister Lucky, is visiting his aunt and uncle in India for the summer. Though he’s of Indian descent, he doesn’t feel much of a connection to the place, having grown up in England. Actually, he kind of wishes he were back in England anyway, since the heat in India is killing him and there’s nothing much exciting going on.

And then his uncle is summoned to the home of Lord Savage, a very wealthy and powerful man with connections to Indian antiquities. Savage offers his uncle – an archaeologist – a job, but the uncle is wary and ultimately refuses, despite the promised huge paycheck. Ash, who had been wandering the fortress, is unlucky enough to stumble upon Savage’s secret – he has rakshasas (demons) in his employ, and Savage’s offer of employment to Ash’s uncle is not what it seems. Savage’s actual aim is to release Ravana, an ancient demon king, who he hopes will grant him immortality.

Ash’s discovery sets Savage and his rakshasas after him, and what follows is an action-packed adventure as Ash, Lucky, and a band of allies – including a rakshasa named Parvati who has her own vendetta against Ravana – fight to stay one step ahead of Savage. Ash – a chubby nerd – finds he has hidden powers, both in terms of character as well as magic. 

Aside from the inclusion of Indian mythology, which is refreshing, the story itself is fairly generic. I found myself disengaging quite a lot once the first portion of the story had passed, and I can’t really blame narrator Bruce Mann, who does a fine job. I suppose I’ve just read this story all too often – the loner kid discovers he has hidden powers and is able to avert the end of the world through magic and a few plucky friends. It’s well told and exciting enough, but doesn’t have the oomph that would propel it to an above average read for me.

All that said, for kids who haven’t yet lived enough years to grow weary of these stories (after all, they’re the audience, not adult me), The Savage Fortress is a solid choice. I liked it about as well as I did the Percy Jackson stories, to which it’s a natural readalike. Hand this to the kids who can’t get enough of mythology and have already read all of Riordan’s books. (Loki’s Wolves by Marr and Armstrong is another likely readalike, though I’ve yet to read it. Surprisingly, I haven’t seen a huge crop of middle grade mythology novels aside from Riordan’s, and it makes me wonder if Riordan has cornered the market on it.)

Audiobook provided by the publisher.

A Pair of Cybils Reviews

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 Drama by Raina Telgemeier
I love Telgemeier’s style – her art is so bright and colorful, it’s immediately attention-grabbing. Each of her characters is distinct, with easily understood (and frequently funny) facial expressions. 
Drama explores the lives of a group of middle school kids putting on a production of Moon Over Mississippi, focusing on Callie, the set designer. The book touches on a lot of topics aside from the issues that come with putting on a show, which I think broadens its accessibility beyond drama geeks: crushes, sexuality, friendship. And of course, it’s nice to see the focus placed on the behind-the-scenes crew (who are refreshingly diverse) rather than the actors. 
What makes the book really shine is its treatment of homosexuality. While Callie herself is sure she likes boys, at least one of her friends is proudly interested in members of the same sex – and one other is struggling more quietly. The situation is complicated by Callie’s own crush on one of these boys.
I’ve read many reviews by people who believe this topic is too mature for its audience, but I couldn’t disagree more. Middle school is just the time when many kids are learning what it is they like (and some learn years earlier). Telgemeier presents Callie’s and her friends’ situations with sensitivity and understanding. I think kids will see themselves in the characters.
Hilda and her mother are being plagued by elves. These elves live in tiny, invisible houses in the same area where Hilda does, and they claim they were there first. Moreover, they say that Hilda and her mother are always stepping on their houses, which is a great annoyance. The elves demand that Hilda and her mother leave, or they will take action.
Hilda thinks this is ridiculous and sets out to talk to the elf in charge in hopes of convincing him they can live together peacefully. On her journey, she meets a giant with his own story to tell, and she decides to help him out as best she can.
This is a weird one (the word “quirky” could have been coined to describe it), but I liked it. It’s a larger book, allowing for some nice full-page landscapes highlighting the contrasts between the tiny elves, medium-sized Hilda, and the giant. The colors are mostly muted, nothing at all like the bright and cheery ones you find in Drama. It sets a nice mood, enhancing the feel that maybe this story is not taking place in our world at all.
The story is more than a little strange, and the ending – which is abrupt and arrives with no foreshadowing – may turn some readers off. But it’s certainly in keeping with the book’s whimsical feel, and I appreciated reading something a little different.

Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller by Joseph Lambert

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The Cybils graphic novel categories were full of true life stories this year – a couple of graphic memoirs and two or three (depending on your definition) historical biographies. Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller was a standout among them – just really well-done overall, with a fascinating true story and art that does more than just illustrate the book.

The relationship between Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller is a fairly well-known one, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way to mine the same material in new and interesting ways. Lambert uses Annie Sullivan’s own letters as a springboard for the story, thereby grounding it in historical fact. It’s also a great way to give the reader some personal insight into Annie’s mind and allow us to experience the many frustrations as well as triumphs she experienced while working with Helen.

The story jumps back and forth in time, between Annie’s childhood in an almshouse and at the Perkins School for the Blind to her time as a young adult with Helen at the Kellers’ home. (The technique is well-intentioned, but sometimes transitions are difficult to pick up on.) This makes the book much more Annie’s story than Helen’s. We get a clear picture of Annie as a determined and intelligent woman, sometimes quick to an outpouring of temper, but well-matched to deal with Helen in her younger years.

One of the best techniques used here is the art, which really illuminates Helen’s transition to understanding the world around her. Before Annie is able to communicate with Helen, Helen’s world as drawn from her point of view is gray and shapeless. As the idea that things have names begins to crystallize for her, so too does the world around her. It’s a simple and brilliant visual idea, something so well-suited to a comic book about a blind girl.

I wouldn’t call the art beautiful, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s well-done and visually interesting, though sometimes the text can be a bit difficult to read. This is a great example of a graphic book where writing and art go hand-in-hand, each necessary to the other.

The end of the book focuses some on a plagiarism scandal that I hadn’t know about previously. Helen wrote a story as a child called The Frost King that was later discovered to be very similar to another author’s story. When this comes to light, Annie is accused of copying the story and passing it off as Helen’s, or of narrating the story to Helen, who then copied it. It was difficult for Helen to understand the concept of owning words, and the book leaves this pretty open-ended, which frustrated me (but perhaps that’s more of a personal failing than the book’s). It certainly encouraged me to do some further reading after I had finished the book, which is not a bad thing at all.

This will certainly appeal to kids already interested in Helen Keller, who seems to be a perennially popular topic for school reports. I can also see it being used in classrooms in conjunction with Miss Spitfire or a viewing/production of The Miracle Worker (which was put on by my own high school class when I was a teenager).