On January 13, the Amelia Bloomer List announced their 2016 YA feminist reads. A part of the Feminist Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association, the Amelia Bloomer Project releases a booklist of the best feminist titles for readers up to age eighteen.
The young adult fiction books listed are Infandous, Audacity, The Boston Girl, These Shallow Graves, Dime, What We Saw, Henni, Under A Painted Sky, Devoted, Dumplin’, Kissing in America, All The Rage and Paper Hearts.
Infandous by Elana K. Arnold follows Sephora Golding, a teen who is always a background character in her beautiful mother’s fairy tale. When she meets Felix, the fairy tale she’s been living in takes a drastic turn.
Inspired by Clara Lemlich, Audacity by Melanie Crowder follows Russian immigrant Clara and her fight for equal rights in early twentieth-century New York City.
In The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant, eighty-five year-old Addie Baum, a Jewish woman born to immigrants in Boston in 1900, recalls her adolescence to her granddaughter. Filled with media culture and new chances for women, Addie reminisces on her experiences in an emerging generation.
These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly follows Jo Montfort, who uses her reporting skills to not only uncover the truth behind her father’s death, but to also break out of becoming a girl who finishes school only to be married into wealth.
Dime by E. R. Frank follows Dime, a young girl who only wants to be loved. But “love” comes with the price of selling herself to make money. When a younger girl joins the “family,” Dime realizes that prostitution isn’t the love she’s been looking for.
What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler is a story about the grey area that surrounds guilt and innocence, told through Kate Weston and her town’s controversy about a peer’s rape charges against classmates.
In Henni by Miss Lasko-Gross, a young teen stuck in a world where religion and tradition rule, goes out on her own adventure to find out about the world and what it is really like.
Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee follows Samantha and Annamae, two girls who disguise themselves as boys on the Oregon Trail in 1849.
In Devoted by Jennifer Mathieu, Rachel Walker is faithful to the Lord. But when the world around her cannot be explained by God, Rachel starts to question her devotion.
Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy follows Willowdean Dickson, a.k.a Dumplin’, who finds herself falling for Bo, a hot, private school jock. Although she’s always been comfortable with her weight, Willowdean starts to doubt herself in her relationship with and enters a beauty pageant to show everyone that she also belongs there with the rest of the candidates.
After finding the one boy she could fall in love with, Kissing in America by Margo Rabb follows Eva and her best friend as they travel across America to see Will again.
All the Rage by Courtney Summers is about Romy Grey, a girl who keeps quiet about the truth that has branded her an outsider. When a girl she knows disappears, Grey has to decide whether to speak up about Kellan Turner, the supposed golden boy, and fight against the community who didn’t believe her words the first time.
Based on actual events, Paper Hearts by Meg Wiviott follows a group of young women and their story for survival as slave laborers at a factory in Auschwitz.
The non-fiction titles named to the list are We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, African American Women: Photographs from the National Museum of African American History and Culture, The Born Frees: Writing with the Girls of Gugulethu by Kimberly Burge, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik, Babe by Petra Collins, Alone atop the Hill: Autobiography of Alice Dunnigan, Pioneer of the National Black Press by Alice Dunnigan, How to Be a Heroine: Or, What I’ve Learned from Reading Too Much by Samantha Ellis, Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution by Mona Eltahawy, Asking for It: The Rise of Rape Culture—and What We Can Do About It by Kate Harding, Sisters in Law by Linda Hirshman and Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science–and the World by Rachel Swaby.
The Amelia Bloomer Project is named after Amelia Bloomer, an American women’s rights advocate who edited The Lily, the first newspaper written for women. The annual list the Amelia Bloomer Project releases hopes to showcase and promote great feminist literature.
For more information and the complete Amelia Bloomer list, visit their website.
