Why did I go out
of my way to include strong female characters in the Hero’s Guide novels?
The short answer:
My daughter would have killed me if I didn’t.
The long answer: Seriously, my daughter would have killed me if I didn’t.
My
daughter, Bryn, is the most avid reader I know (though her little brother,
Dash, is gaining ground on her). At any given point in the day, you’d be hard
pressed to find Bryn without a book in
her hands. And she reads pretty much everything—fantasy, historical dramas,
sci-fi, realistic fiction, you name it. Still, with all the reading she does,
she gets shout-it-from-the-rooftops excited when she comes across powerful
female characters. Even if they’re not the main protagonists. She’ll
come running to me, joyously waving the book as if it were a winning lottery
ticket: “Dad, you’ve got to read this! The girl in it is so cool!” If the novel in question happens to be an
action-adventure story, she gets so wound up I start to fear she may implode.
On
the one hand, it’s wonderful to see a tween so enthusiastic about the books she
reads. But at the same time, it’s bittersweet. Because I wish that finding
awesome girl heroes was something she could take for granted, something that
happened so frequently she wouldn’t feel the urge to declare a national holiday
around it. Unfortunately, she’s come to expect the standard set-up of “boy
hero/male best friend/girl along for the ride.” Especially if it’s an adventure
story. And it’s not that she finds that general dynamic inherently
disappointing—it’s that too often the boy hero is flawed-but-courageous, the
best friend is lovably goofy, and the girl is—in Bryn’s words—“just a girl,
like that’s a personality trait or something.”
So
when I started to write an action-fantasy novel that centered around—sigh—four men, I knew I’d really have to amp up the
ladies in the story if I wanted to please Bryn. But I didn’t just do it for
her. I mentioned my son Dash earlier. For the past year or so, he’s had the
typical girls-are-icky mentality so common to first grade boys. And as a
result, he wanted his books to be as girl-free as possible. Until he met Amelia
Bedelia—whom he found so hilarious that he couldn’t wait to read every one of
Peggy Parrish’s classics. And then he decided to visit Oz, even though his main
guide on the journey would be a young girl name Dorothy. After that, he agreed
to try Wonderland—despite knowing that Alice wouldn’t even have three male
companions to help distract him from her femaleness.
My
own kids are heavily in mind when I write. I figure that, like Bryn, there are
other girls out there who are constantly on the lookout for exciting female
characters. And that, like Dash, there are other boys who—once they are
introduced to fun girl protagonists—will figure out that reading about the
opposite sex doesn’t give you cooties.
But
I can’t say I loaded the Hero’s Guide
universe with strong women just for my daughter and son—or even for all the
other sons and daughters out there who may read my books. I also did it for
myself. Because I’ve always loved strong female characters. I started off like
Dash, missing out on such fabulous stories as Harriet the Spy and the Ramona series because they were “girl books.”
But then I developed a literary crush on Pippi Longstocking, rooted for Turtle
Wexler to win the Westing Game, and found Eilonwy to be the true star of Lloyd
Alexander’s Prydain chronicles. I wish I’d had more, though. Back then, I would
have adored Coraline Jones, Lyra Silvertongue, and, of course, Hermione
Granger.
I’m
grateful that my kids have it so much better than I did on the
strong-female-character front. But that doesn’t mean I won’t continue to take
the gender factor into account when I write. I’d like to make sure that I never
put a future parent into a situation like the one I currently find myself in…
I’m more than halfway through the process of reading the entire Lord of the
Rings saga (Hobbit included) aloud to my daughter—after
billing it as one of my favorite all-time stories and biggest influences on my
work. And while Bryn is very much
into the plot and has grown attached to many characters (Pippin and Gimli in
particular), she still asks me every single night, with growing fatigue in her
voice, “Are there any girls in this
chapter?”
Thank you to Chris Healy for sharing this very honest insight into girls in books and particularly powerful perspectives from his own children. Chris Healy's book The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle actually prompted our whole Girl Power series. Be sure to visit our other Girl Power posts and to check back this week when we review The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle and highlight each of the Chris' fantastic girl characters!
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