It’s August, and that means Women’s month in South Africa. This is a day when we remember 9th August 1956 when 20 000 women, led by Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Albertina Sisulu and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest the pass laws.
Women’s month is a time where we look at who we are, what we believe in and how to pursue our goals.
Many girls might not have role models around that they can relate to, but fiction provides a large variety of strong female characters. By reading these books, they might find one to identify with to give them energy and wisdom to make the choices needed to succeed.
We had a look at the books that can be borrowed from the Book Village library, and came up with these ideas:
Strong Female Characters in Books
Roald Dahl has two great girl characters. Matilda is misunderstood by her awful family, but is a brave book lover who taught herself everything from library books and uses her magical powers to overcome the evil Miss Trunchbull.
Sophie from The BFG is an orphan, resilient and brave and heroically helps the BFG to stop the, man-eating giants.
Our library has many audiobooks of the Nancy Drew series. Nancy drew is the original super- girl sleuth, and as a cultural icon is cited as a formative influence by Hillary Clinton and the US supreme court justices, Sandra Day O’Connor and Sonia Sotomayor.
Many girls will relate to Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series. At first teased for being an outspoken know- it- all, she became the heroine of Hogwarts with her intelligence, hard work and ability to always do the right thing, even when that made her unpopular.
We could not put down The Hunger Games trilogy when we read it, and the main character, Katniss Everdeen will appeal to many older girls. A brave and daring hunter and survivor, she is a symbol of rebellion against the oppressive Capitol. Book Village has both audiobook and e-book copies that may be borrowed by our students.
There are of course, also young, living, strong, female role models around today who have inspirational books:
Books Written by Strong, Female Role Models
Greta Thunberg , the 17 year old Swedish climate change activist, has a book of her speeches, No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference.
Malala Yousafzai’s I am Malala has been recognized by the world as an inspired activist for girls’ education.
By encouraging our girls to read, they might just see the possibilities in their lives.
Most of these books may be borrowed online from the Gauteng Provincial Library – and will appeal to girls, boys and adults alike as we admire and celebrate women from all walks of life this women’s month.
