Interview with Young Adult Author Shannon Hale Reveals Half Her Readers are Women

I have a terrible addiction and it's called reading. All through their lives, my now-teenaged daughters have frequently found me crashed out on the family room couch after pulling an all-nighter because I couldn't bear to put a novel down. In fact, I've often told them, "If books were heroin, Mommy would be dead by now." (They always roll their eyes at that one, especially since they haven't called me 'Mommy' in years.)

When my daughters find a book of their own that they like, I encourage them to pass it along to me. And that's how I found Shannon Hale. Though she writes young adult fiction, as she revealed in an interview, "according to my fan mail, about half my readers are adults."

She's a gifted and imaginative writer who uses fairy tales as the inspiration for her stories. Some novels rework classic tales while others introduce completely new and different characters and themes. Nearly all her books feature females as the lead characters - not warrior princess girls wielding swords, but realistic girls who don't have all the answers and often make painful mistakes as they figure out their lives.

In the case of her first novel, The Goose Girl, Hale explains that she decided to write about "a weak girl, a sheltered girl thrown into an adventure against her will....It was the joy of the story for me to watch that girl struggle into her own kind of strength."

Harry Potter may be fine and dandy, but we need more books with female protagonists. We need to encourage girls to read books in which girls - not boys - take the lead. And we need to support writers like Shannon Hale who depict ordinary girls turning into extraordinary young women as they overcome adversity with intelligence, creativity, and courage.

Have a tween or middle school-aged girl in your life? Start with The Goose Girl or Princess Academy, which was named a 2006 Newbery Honor Book. (And don't let the title throw you - it's not a girly-girl book.) These are wonderful books to read, to read out loud, or to listen to on long car rides this summer (audiobook versions are available.)

You might also treat the inner girl inside you and buy yourself a copy. (Don't be embarrassed. Half of Hale's fans are grown women.)

Still not convinced? Read my interview with Shannon Hale and see what she - and her writing - are all about.