Non-Bratty, Valor-filled, Selfless, Heroines and Heroes

Top 10 Non-Bratty, Valor-filled, Selfless, Heroines and Heroes : The Chronicles of Narnia, Heidi, A Little Princess, Howl's Moving Castle, The Last Unicorn, The Goose Girl, Princess Academy, Fairest, Things You Save in a Fire, Veiled Rose

The Chronicles of Narnia
AuthorC.S. Lewis
ISBN0066238501
Journeys to the end of the world, fantastic creatures, and epic battles between good and evil—what more could any reader ask for in one book? The book that has it all is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, written in 1949 by Clive Staples Lewis. But Lewis did not stop there. Six more books followed, and...
Heidi
AuthorJohanna Spyri
ISBN0753454947
Heidi, a Swiss book originally published in German in 1881, was one of those books I grew up with: my mother had a simplified, abridged version of it that I read many times and loved as a child. When I realized the GR group "Catching up on the Classics" was doing it as a group read, I jumped in, excited for the...
A Little Princess
AuthorFrances Hodgson Burnett
ISBN0142437018
Sara Crewe, an exceptionally intelligent and imaginative student at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, is devastated when her adored, indulgent father dies. Now penniless and banished to a room in the attic, Sara is demeaned, abused, and forced to work as a servant. How this resourceful...
Howl's Moving Castle
AuthorDiana Wynne Jones
An alternative cover for this ISBN can be found here

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a...
The Last Unicorn
AuthorPeter S. Beagle
ISBN0451450523
alternate cover editions can be found here, here and here

She was magical, beautiful beyond belief—and completely alone...

The unicorn had lived since before memory in a forest where death could touch nothing. Maidens who caught a glimpse of her glory were blessed by enchantment...
AuthorShannon Hale
ISBN1582349908
Anidora-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree spent the first years of her life listening to her aunt's incredible stories, and learning the language of the birds. Little knowing how valuable her aunt's strange knowledge would prove to be when she grew older. From the Grimm's fairy...
Princess Academy
AuthorShannon Hale
ISBN1599900734
Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of...
AuthorGail Carson Levine
ISBN0060734086
In the kingdom of Ayortha, who is the fairest of them all? Certainly not Aza. She is thoroughly convinced that she is ugly. What she may lack in looks, though, she makes up for with a kind heart, and with something no one else has-a magical voice. Her vocal talents captivate all who hear them, and in Ontio...
Things You Save in a Fire
AuthorKatherine Center
ISBN1250047323
Cassie Hanwell was born for emergencies. As one of the only female firefighters in her Texas firehouse, she's seen her fair share of them, and she's excellent at dealing with other people's tragedies. But when her estranged and ailing mother asks her to uproot her life and move to Boston, it's an emergency...
AuthorAnne Elisabeth Stengl
ISBN0764207822
Rose Red trusts no one with her secret. She hides in the forest, her face veiled in rags, shunning the company of all save her old father and her nanny goat. Her life is bleak and lonely.

Until she meets a privileged young man sent to spend his summer in the mountains. Headstrong young Leo startles...
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
AuthorCatherynne M. Valente
ISBN0312649614
Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket), who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help...
Twelfth Night
AuthorWilliam Shakespeare
ISBN0743482778
Named for the twelfth night after Christmas, the end of the Christmas season, Twelfth Night plays with love and power. The Countess Olivia, a woman with her own household, attracts Duke (or Count) Orsino. Two other would-be suitors are her pretentious steward, Malvolio, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

Onto...
Sarah, Plain and Tall
AuthorPatricia MacLachlan
ISBN0618062416
This beloved Newbery Medal–winning book is the first of five books in Patricia MacLachlan's chapter book series about the Witting family.

Set in the late nineteenth century and told from young Anna's point of view, Sarah, Plain and Tall tells the story of how Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton comes...
AuthorAnne Elisabeth Stengl
ISBN0764210262
When a cursed dragon-witch kidnaps fairest Lady Gleamdren, the Bard Eanrin sets boldly forth on a rescue mission...and a race against his rival for Gleamdren's favor. Intent upon his quest, the last thing the immortal Faerie needs is to become mixed up with the troubles of an insignificant mortal.

But...
AuthorNicole Sager
ISBN1479361887
“He who discovers the heart of Arcrea and joins the hands of the seven regions will be king.”

Set during a forgotten age of kings and queens, knights and nobles, wise-men and warlords, The Heart of Arcrea follows the story of Druet the blacksmith, who, hoping to free his father from an unjust...
The Merchant's Daughter
AuthorMelanie Dickerson
ISBN0310727618
An unthinkable danger. An unexpected choice. Annabel, once the daughter of a wealthy merchant, is trapped in indentured servitude to Lord Ranulf, a recluse who is rumored to be both terrifying and beastly. Her circumstances are made even worse by the proximity of Lord Ranulf s bailiff a revolting man...
The Two Princesses of Bamarre
AuthorGail Carson Levine
ISBN0060575808
Twelve-year-old Addie admires her older sister Meryl, who aspires to rid the kingdom of Bamarre of gryphons, specters, and ogres. Addie, on the other hand, is fearful even of spiders and depends on Meryl for courage and protection. Waving her sword Bloodbiter, the older girl declaims in the garden...
City of Bones
AuthorCassandra Clare
ISBN1416914285
When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the...
Arrows of the Queen
AuthorMercedes Lackey
ISBN0886773784
Follows the adventures of Talia as she trains to become a Herald of Valdemar in the first book in the classic epic fantasy Arrows trilogy

Chosen by the Companion Rolan, a mystical horse-like being with powers beyond imagining, Talia, once a runaway, has now become a trainee Herald, destined...
AuthorEdith Pattou
ISBN0152052216
Rose has always been different. Since the day she was born, it was clear she had a special fate. Her superstitious mother keeps the unusual circumstances of Rose's birth a secret, hoping to prevent her adventurous daughter from leaving home... but she can't suppress Rose's true nature forever. So when...
The 13 Clocks
AuthorJames Thurber
ISBN0440405823
How can anyone describe this book? It isn't a parable, a fairy story, or a poem, but rather a mixture of all three. It is beautiful and it is comic. It is philosophical and it is cheery. What we suppose we are trying fumblingly to say is, in a word, that it is Thurber.

There are only a few reasons why...
A Face Like Glass
AuthorFrances Hardinge
ISBN0230763502
In Caverna, lies are an art — and everyone's an artist...

In the underground city of Caverna the world's most skilled craftsmen toil in the darkness to create delicacies beyond compare. They create wines that can remove memories, cheeses that can make you hallucinate and perfumes that convince...
AuthorPatricia C. Wrede
ISBN0152046917
Always be polite to dragons!

That's what Daystar's mother taught him...and it's a very wise lesson--one that might just help him after his mom hands him a magic sword and kicks him out of the house. Especially because his house sits on the edge of the Enchanted Forest and his mother is Queen Cimorene.

But...
AuthorPatricia A. McKillip
ISBN0441004385
Sorrow and trouble and bitterness will bound you and yours and the children of yours...

Some said the dying words of Nial Lynn, murdered by his own son, were a wicked curse. To others, it was a winter's tale spun by firelight on cold, dark nights. But when Corbet Lynn came to rebuild his family estate,...
AuthorAnne Elisabeth Stengl
ISBN0989447855
BEYOND THE REALM OF DREAMS IS A WORLD SHE NEVER IMAGINED

Masayi Sairu was raised to be dainty, delicate, demure . . . and deadly. She is one of the emperor’s Golden Daughters, as much a legend as she is a commodity. One day, Sairu will be contracted in marriage to a patron, whom she will secretly...
AuthorE.D. Baker
In this new stand-alone fairy tale, Princess Annie is the younger sister to Gwen, the princess destined to be Sleeping Beauty. When Gwennie pricks her finger and the whole castle falls asleep, only Annie is awake, and only Annie-blessed (or cursed?) with being impervious to magic-can venture out beyond...
AuthorPolly Holyoke
ISBN1423157567
With her weak eyes and useless lungs that often leave her gasping for air, Nere feels more at home swimming with the dolphins her mother studies than she does hanging out with her classmates. Nere has never understood why she is so much more comfortable and confident in the water than on land until the day...
AuthorRobin McKinley
ISBN0064404773
A strange imprisonment...

Beauty has never liked her nickname. She is thin and awkward; it is her two sisters who are the beautiful ones. But what she lacks in looks, she can perhaps make up for in courage.

When her father comes home with the tale of an enchanted castle in the forest and...
Hangman's Curse
AuthorFrank E. Peretti
ISBN1400303710
One of the most popular Christian fiction titles ever written for teens, this riveting book addresses the topic of peer abuse and its devastating effects. The message of Hangman's Curse on the wounded spirit is one that teens will never forget. In this gripping mystery/adventure a mysterious curse...
Pollyanna
AuthorEleanor H. Porter
ISBN0689849109
Book Reviewed by Stacey on www.whisperingstories.com

Eleven-year-old Pollyanna has been through such heartache. Her mother died a few years ago and now her Minister father has tragically died too. The only family she has left is her Aunt Polly who lives in Vermont in a big house on a hill.

Polly...
AuthorDebbie Viguié
ISBN1416986766
"ONCE UPON A TIME" IS TIMELESS

When a storm brings the dashing Prince Richard to her family's farm, Violet falls in love at first sight. Richard also gives Violet his heart, but he knows his marriage is destined to be an affair of state, not of passion. For the king and queen have devised a contest...
The Princess and Curdie
AuthorGeorge MacDonald
ISBN0140367624
See my review for The Princess and the Goblin. My kids made me read this to them for four hours straight Sunday afternoon (I wasn't hard to persuade), and then were disappointed that we had to stop for dinner. Eric hurried and got ready early for school the next morning so I could read another chapter, and...
The Princess and the Goblin
AuthorGeorge MacDonald
ISBN0140367462
Published in 1872, The Princess and the Goblin is one of the first books in the modern fantasy genre. This book had tremendous and very visible influence on all the (now much more famous) authors that came after it.

It is of course very dated. It does not match the standards that fantasy have created...
AuthorJane Yolen
ISBN0698119185
Called La Jardiniere, a resourceful and clever jester to the queen's court, Nicola was a most unlikely person to end up "fool" and friend to Mary, Queen of Scots. But Nicola isn't an ordinary comedian clowning before the court; her sharp tongue is rare amongst the fawning nobles. As fate takes Mary from...
AuthorElizabeth Marie Pope
ISBN0618150730
Of the several Tam Lin retellings I've read, the classic YA novel The Perilous Gard is a standout. I frequently sing the praises of Pamela Dean's version of Tam Lin, while knowing full well that that novel will only appeal to a limited subset of the fraction of readers who like fairy tale novelizations....
Dealing with Dragons
AuthorPatricia C. Wrede
"He doesn't seem very impressed," Cimorene commented in some amusement.
"Why should he be?" Kazul said.
"Well, you're a dragon," Cimorene answered, a little taken aback.
"What difference does that make to a cat?" Before Harry Potter, there was Princess Cimorene, a dragon named Kazul,...
AuthorKirby Larson
ISBN0385733135
ACTUALLY THIS WAS A PLEASANT SURPRISE. Honestly I was afraid this was going to be SUPER GIRLY or SUPER ROMANCE-Y (or both). But… it really wasn’t? I mean it definitely would hold more of an appeal for girls, and it’s definitely not a new favorite, but the good news is that I only gagged once. *nods*...
Book of a Thousand Days
AuthorShannon Hale
ISBN1599900513
When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years because of Saren's refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment.

As food runs low and the days go from broiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them...
AuthorM.M. Kaye
ISBN0142300853
Along with Wit, Charm, Health, and Courage, Princess Amy of Phantasmorania receives a special fairy christening gift: Ordinariness. Unlike her six beautiful sisters, she has brown hair and freckles, and would rather have adventures than play the harp, embroider tapestries . . . or become a Queen....
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