Dr. Margaret Robbins's Recs: Books and Media with Empowered Female Protagonists

In this collection, Kamala Khan is facing the aftermath of tragic events in New Jersey and trying to reconnect after her time in Pakistan with extended family. She is trying to encourage more people to go out and vote, in hopes that more people will choose the less high profile, but more qualified candidate, rather than the two frontrunners who lack integrity. In the meantime, a cyberbully has infiltrated Ms. Marvel's Battlecraft universe, and she must stop it, before this cyberbully hurts those close to her or forces Ms. Marvel into an act that goes against her principles. In the meantime, we get a glimpse of Bruno's new life in Wakanda, as he tries to make new friends and gain confidence after his severe accident. I was so excited about the next volume that came out today, I went ahead and ordered it with the Amazon gift certificate my parents got me for Christmas! The new Ms. Marvel continues to thrive as the character continues to grow, and as Brene Brown would say, brave h...

This is another novel that I reviewed for School Library Journal that I wanted to share here because I love it so much, and also because one of the major themes is female empowerment. At the start of the story, Quinn Sawyer is grieving deeply for her best male friend Dylan, who died in a tragic accident at their summer camp. There is indeed a male love interest in the story, the "new boy in town" named Alexander. So yes, there are some fairly common YA literature tropes in the story: girl falls in love with her male best friend, she loses him, and she later falls in love with a new person who sees her in a different way. We can all relate to this narrative, at least to a degree, which is one reason why I think it's so common both in literature and in television. But Carlie Sorosiak tells it with skill, which is how one can pull off story, since most stories have indeed been told before, and the trick is telling your narrative well with a new twist. The new twist to this...

This is the review I posted on Goodreads (4/4.5 Stars): This amazing, lyrical science fiction YA novel tells the story of a brilliant, sensitive, and creative teenage girl named Luisa, who has just been accepted into a high profile internship program as a result of her computer coding skills. But Luisa’s plans change abruptly when a mysterious virus erupts that affects thousands of people, including her best friend and her father. Luisa, her brother Ben, and their friends Kamal and Phoebe go on a cross-country journey to try to find a cure and to save the world, before it’s too late. Luisa gets hints in the form of mysterious poems, and she has to learn to trust faith and intuition that go beyond science and logic. Along the way, she better understands the positive side of her condition, which is seeing waves of color when her emotions run high. This book has depth, suspense, intriguing characters, and an engaging plot that moves along like a gripping action film. Highly recommended fo...

(A slightly different version was originally published on my other blog, comicsandyalit.blogspot.com, which includes reviews from my Goodreads selection).      Since my colleagues know that I am interested in comics and graphic novels, I frequently get asked to recommend graphica/comic books for classroom use and for adolescents to read for interest. Recently, I have been thinking in particular about comic volumes and graphic novels that have not yet been canonized the way such books as Art Spiegelman’s  The Complete Maus  and Marjane Satrapi’s  The Complete Persepolis  have. These important graphic novels paved the way for the exploration of comics and graphic novels in classroom settings. However, I am learning about so many other options out there! At various conferences I have attended, as well as courses I have taught. I have been reminded of how important it is for educators to learn about high interest readings for adolescents. By doing s...