Young Adult Strong Females Leads Book List
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Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu – YA F MAT
Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with an administration at her high school that thinks the football team can do no wrong—fed up with sexist dress codes, hallway harassment, and gross comments from guys during class. But most of all, Viv is fed up with always following the rules. Viv’s mom was a tough-as-nails, punk rock Riot Grrrl in the ’90s, and now Viv takes a page from her mother’s past and creates a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She’s just blowing off steam, but other girls respond. |
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Warcross by Marie Lu – YA F LU
Teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on Warcross, a game, illegally. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening round of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation. |
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Cinder by Marissa Meyer – YA F MEY
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. A ruthless Lunar people watch from space, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl: Cinder, a gifted mechanic and a cyborg. |
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A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle – J F LEN
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murphy, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by a most disturbing stranger. “Wild nights are my glory,” the unearthly stranger told them. “Let me sit down for a moment, and then I’ll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such thing as a tesseract.” |
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The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge – YA F HAR
On an island off the south coast of Victorian England, fourteen-year-old Faith Sunderly investigates her father’s mysterious death, who was involved in a scandal, and discovers a tree that feeds upon lies and gives those who eat its fruit visions of truth. |
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Graceling by Kristin Cashore – YA F CAS
Katsa is smart and beautiful and lives in the Seven Kingdoms, where selected people are born with Grace, a unique talent that can be anything at all. Katsa’s Grace is killing. As the king’s niece, she is forced to use her extreme skills as his brutal enforcer. Until the day she meets Prince Po, who is Graced with combat skills, and Katsa’s life begins to change. |
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To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee – F LEE
The explosion of racial hate and violence in a small Alabama town is viewed by a young girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape. |
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Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia – YA F ZAP
Eighteen-year-old Eliza Mirk is the anonymous creator of Monstrous Sea, a wildly popular webcomic, but when a new boy at school tempts her to live a life offline, everything she’s worked for begins to crumble. |
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The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart – YA F LOC
Sophomore Frankie starts dating senior Matthew Livingston, but when he refuses to talk about the all-male secret society he and his friends belong to, Frankie infiltrates the society to enliven their mediocre pranks. |
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Unbecoming by Jenny Downham – YA F DOW
Life has just become very complicated for seventeen-year-old Katie: her father walked out a year ago, her mother is stressed out, her brother is a “special needs” teenager, and she is caring for the maternal grandmother she has never met, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s–and Katie has a secret of her own that she cannot reveal. |
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The DUFF: Designate Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger – YA F KEP
Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper may not be the prettiest girl in her high school, but she has a loyal group of friends, a biting wit, and a spot-on BS detector. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of school hottie Wesley Rush, who calls Bianca the Duff. But things aren’t so great at home and Bianca, desperate for a distraction, ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Until it all goes horribly awry, it turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone. |
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A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnson – YA F JOH
Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, so when she is taken to the king’s dangerous court, she believes death will soon follow, but night after night, Lo-Melkiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, leading her to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced the kingdom and soon she is dreaming of bigger, more terrible magic, power enough to save a king if she can put an end to the rule of a monster. |
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Chaotic Good by Whitney Gardner – YA F GAR
Cameron’s cosplay creations are finally starting to earn her attention–attention she hopes to use to get into the CalArts for college. But after she wins a competition, she inadvertently sets off a firestorm of angry comments from male fans. Cameron hopes to finish her costume portfolio in peace and quiet away from the abuse. Unfortunately, the only comic shop in town is staffed by a dudebro owner who challenges every woman who comes into the shop. At her brother’s suggestion, Cameron borrows a set of his clothes and waltzes into the shop as Boy Cameron, where she’s shocked at how easily she’s accepted into the nerd inner sanctum. |
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Roar by Cora Carmack – YA F CAR
Raised to rule, Aurora becomes betrothed to a prince who possesses the magic needed to keep the kingdom safe despite not having the storm magic her ancestors did. But the more secrets Aurora uncovers about him, the more a future with him frightens her. Aurora soon realizes there’s a third option for her future besides ruin or marriage. |
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Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy – YA F MUR
Sixteen-year-old Willowdean wants to prove to everyone in her small Texas town that she is more than just a fat girl, so, while grappling with her feelings for a co-worker who is clearly attracted to her, Will and some other misfits prepare to compete in the beauty pageant her mother runs. |

















