The best books for upper elementary and middle grades featuring girls who are overcomers

I love stories with kids in the sixties in New York City when a kid could pretty much roam at will. This is one, though that’s not the focus. Harriet M. Welsch, who likes to think of herself as a sort of spy is definitely a keen observer. In her notebook, she writes down everything she knows about everyone, including her classmates and her best friends. It is all truthful, but sometimes not so flattering. Then she loses the notebook! Will she find it before someone else does and keep all the secrets secret? Or will it end up in the wrong hands? And if it does, then what does Harriet do? 

I know there’s a movie, a play, and a comic book at this point. But read the original book – Stargirl! It’s still the best. “Stargirl” Caraway shows up at Mica High School after being home-schooled her whole life. She does her own thing in an honest, uninhibited way. She brings her pet rat and ukulele to school every day and plays and sings “Happy Birthday” to any and every student on their birthday. She wears kimonos and pioneer clothes. At first everyone else is not sure what to make of her and she is kept at a distance, but eventually she wins people over. Then things go terribly wrong and Stargirl has to decide if it’s best to fit in or be true to herself. 

A Newberry Honor book by a great author. Gilly Hopkins has been in and out of foster homes due to her “uncooperative” nature till she finally lands with a formidable, unusual, and loving family, the Trotters. Gilly likes to be in charge, and she can always smell a phony and figure a way out of there, but this time around, the overwhelming love and matter-of-fact, positive, no-nonsense attitude of Mrs. Trotter make foster care a whole new ball game for Gilly. A realistic, but heartwarming story.

It’s a Newberry Award winner, so you know something good is going on here. I must admit, there have been some duds over the many years of the award, but in this case, the writing, the story, and the characters, really do warrant the accolade. Salamanca (Sal) Tree Hiddle is the heroine and voice here. She’s proud of her American-Indian heritage and country roots. She’s on a journey across country from Ohio to Idaho to find her mother. Her somewhat eccentric grandparents are her companions and as they travel Sal tells them the story of another girl, Phoebe Winterbottom, so we have a story within a story. You like a great, realistic, meaningful ending? Me too! You’ll find it here.

Again, loved the play and the movie, but the book is still the best. Humor, wit, courage, love, action, terror, this book has it all. And who can beat Roald Dahl at telling a tale? Matilda is quite the intrepid heroine who overcomes an unloving, criminal family and a cruel and dangerous school headmistress to persevere in love and life. Still one of my favorites, especially as a read-aloud.