Denver Public Library: Teens: Find a Good Book, Book Lists

The Amelia Bloomer Project creates an annual book list of the best feminist books for young readers, ages birth through 18.

ADDIE ON THE INSIDE
by James Howe
Outspoken thirteen-year-old Addie Carle learns about love, loss, and staying true to herself as she navigates seventh grade, enjoys a visit from her grandmother, fights with her boyfriend, and endures gossip and meanness from her former best friend.

BASKETBALL BELLES: HOW TWO TEAMS AND ONE SCRAPPY PLAYER PUT WOMEN'S HOOPS ON THE MAP
by Sue Macy
Raised on a cattle ranch, Agnes Morley was sent to Stanford University to learn to be a lady. Yet in no time she exchanged her breeches and spurs for bloomers and a basketball; and in April 1896 she made history. In a heart-pounding game against the University of California at Berkeley, Agnes led her team to victory in the first-ever intercollegiate women's basketball game, earning national attention and putting women's basketball on the map.

BEAUTY QUEENS
by Libba Bray
When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island's other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition.

DEADLY
by Julie Chibbaro
In the early nineteen-hundreds, sixteen-year-old Prudence Galewski leaves school to take a job assisting the head epidemiologist at New York's Department of Health and Sanitation, investigating the intriguing case of "Typhoid Mary," a seemingly healthy woman who is infecting others with typhoid fever.

THE DRESSMAKER OF KHAIR KHANA: FIVE SISTERS, ONE REMARKABLE FAMILY, AND THE WOMAN WHO RISKED EVERYTHING TO KEEP THEM SAFE
by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
The life Kamila Sidiqi had known changed overnight when the Taliban seized control of the city of Kabul. After receiving a teaching degree during the civil war – a rare achievement for any Afghan woman – Kamila was subsequently banned from school and confined to her home. When her father and brother were forced to flee the city, Kamila became the sole breadwinner for her five siblings. Armed only with grit and determination, she picked up a needle and thread and created a thriving business of her own.

RUTH BADER GINSBURG: U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE **Available from Request It with a Denver Public Library card.**
by Paul McCaffrey
Describes how Ruth Bader Ginsburg overcame discrimination and tragedy to become the second female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

TILLIE THE TERRIBLE SWEDE: HOW ONE WOMAN, A SEWING NEEDLE, AND A BICYCLE CHANGED HISTORY
by Sue Stauffacher
A story of America's bicycle craze and the story of one woman who wouldn't let society's expectations stop her from achieving her dream.

WOMEN HEROES OF WORLD WAR II: 26 STORIES OF ESPIONAGE, SABOTAGE, RESISTANCE, AND RESCUE
by Kathryn J. Atwood
Noor Inayat Khan was the first female radio operator sent into occupied France and transferred crucial messages. Johtje Vos, a Dutch housewife, hid Jews in her home and repeatedly outsmarted the Gestapo. Law student Hannie Schaft became involved in the most dangerous resistance work – sabotage, weapons transference, and assassinations. In these pages, young readers will meet these and many other similarly courageous women and girls who risked their lives to help defeat the Nazis.

WHEELS OF CHANGE: HOW WOMEN RODE THE BICYCLE TO FREEDOM (WITH A FEW FLAT TIRES ALONG THE WAY)
by Sue Macy
Through vintage photographs, advertisements, cartoons, and songs, Wheels of Change transports young readers to bygone eras to see how women used the bicycle to improve their lives. Witty in tone and scrapbook-like in presentation, the book deftly covers early (and comical) objections, influence on fashion, and impact on social change inspired by the bicycle, which, according to Susan B. Anthony, "has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world."

WHEN SHE WOKE
by Hillary Jordan
Hannah Payne's life has been devoted to church and family. But after she's convicted of murder, she awakens in a new body to a nightmarish new life. She finds herself lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new Chromes – criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime – is a sinister form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red for the crime of murder. The victim, says the State of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she shared a fierce and forbidden love.