10 of the best feminist books for children

Babette Cole; Puffin 

Princess Smartypants doesn’t want to get married – she wants to ride around on her motorbike doing whatever she wants and stay a Ms forever. Feminist fairy tale retellings are rather old hat now, but this was one of the first, and one of the best.

Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler; Alison Green Books 

Anyone with small children knows why Julia Donaldson is so well-loved and so popular. I can’t wait until my little boy is old enough to read this story of a princess who wants to be a doctor and the dragon who doesn’t want to roast her alive.

3. Little People, Big Dreams series

Eng Gee Fan, Isabel Sanchez Vegara and others; Frances Lincoln

Series of picture books documenting the lives women such as Frida Kahlo, Agatha Christie, Maya Angelou and Ella Fitzgerald. A nice mix of well-documented and more unusual names, with very simple storytelling making these accessible to young readers.

Kate Pankhurst; Bloomsbury

A lively picture book celebration of lots of really great women. Every primary school library should have this book.

Astrid Lingren; Oxford University Press 

Apparently, Sweden has more female MPs than anywhere except Rwanda, and they think it’s down to Pippi. She’s the strongest girl in the world: as brave as a lion, as rich as a nine-year-old with an enormous chest of gold and as eccentric as… Well, let’s be honest, there’s really no one else like Pippi, is there? I have never wanted to be anyone as much as nine-year-old me wanted to be Pippi Longstocking.

Elena Favilli, Francesca Cavallo; Particular Books 

Potted biographies of lots of great women – not just rebels (although many of them are), but scientists, writers, artists, politicians, etc. A great ethnic and historical mix too, and lots of women who did great things as children and teenagers.

Jacqueline Wilson; Corgi 

Jacqueline Wilson’s historical novel about a young girl working in a sweet factory who becomes involved with the Suffragettes. I’m a big Jacqueline Wilson fan, so I’m certain you’re in safe hands here.

Julie Hearn; Oxford University Press

When Hazel’s father takes her to the 1913 Epsom Derby, she doesn’t expect her life to be changed forever. But as she watches a Suffragette step in front of the King’s horse, so begins Hazel’s fight for justice – not just politically, but in her own family.

Linda Newbery; Barrington Stoke

Super-accessible YA novel, for teenagers with a reading age of eight, about a young girl who joins the Suffragette movement by Costa-award-winning Linda Newbery? Yes, please!

Not technically a children’s book, but every secondary school library should have a copy of this graphic novel about Emmeline Pankhurst’s (fictional) maid. An accessible and meticulously researched introduction to Suffragette history.