Echo’s Top Five Heroines
by Melissa Grey
In The Girl at Midnight, my seventeen-year-old protagonist, Echo, lives in the New York Public Library and has since she was seven years old. Naturally, she’s spent a good chunk of her wild and reckless youth reading. Here’s a list of Echo’s favorite heroines from fictional worlds, in no particular order.
1. Claudia, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – Echo’s original role model. She came across this book in her elementary school library and she loved it so much she may have “forgotten” to return it (every thief starts somewhere). Claudia runs away from home to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which inspires Echo to take off on her own and set up camp in the gorgeous main branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
2. Hermione Granger, Harry Potter – Sometimes, brute force isn’t the best way through a problem. Sometimes, the best solution is a combination of books and cleverness. Like Hermione, Echo enjoys devouring knowledge from all across the spectrum, because hey, you never know when you might need to whip up a Polyjuice Potion to save the day.
3. Éowyn, The Lord of the Rings – A woman born into a world of suffocating expectations who defies convention to become a warrior so fearsome not even the Witch King stands a chance? What’s not to love?
4. Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games – The benefit of living in a library is that you get to read all the best books before they’re checked out forever (seriously, try borrowing The Hunger Games these days, you’ll be on the wait list for ages). Katniss scrabbles together a meager survival and goes to the ends of the earth to protect the people she loves, something Echo knows a thing or two about.
5. Morgaine, The Mists of Avalon – This Marion Zimmer Bradley classic has it all: action, adventure, romance, heartbreak, and of course, complex, nuanced female characters. Morgaine, also known as Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend, is a powerful priestess fighting to preserve’s her people’s place in the world against the overwhelming tide of patriarchy. And that’s something Echo can get behind.
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Courtesy of Random House Children’s Books, I have a copy of The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey for one (1) lucky winner!
Contest is open to US residents only. No PO Boxes please. To enter, just fill out the form below. Contest ends June 5. I’ll draw a name on June 6, and notify winner via email.
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