ooh ... I recently got a book that seems to be a Very Buffista story - kind of a steampunk-old west story, with Thomas Edison, Wyatt Earp and his cohorts. Called "The Buntline Special" and, yes, Ned Buntline's in it.

And "Bat" Masterson? turns out he didn't get his nickname from his cane (snerk).

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I'm skimming and posting because I have a somewhat important deadline looming and thought the literary hivemind might be able to help. I'm looking for a well-written* book accessible for a 13-14 year old that follows the hero's journey archetype and has either a female protagonist or a strong female character in a major role. Ideas? This is for a summer reading assignment for rising ninth graders at my school (all girls, fwiw).

• Can be YA or adult so long as its not too controversial.

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Pix:

Terry Pratchett's Wee Free Men. Tiffany Aching goes on a quest to rescue her brother from the Queen of Air and Darkness, learns how to do magic, obtains knowledge of the world, comes back to her home. (To be fair, she doesn't share that knowledge with her people yet because they hate witches there, but she gets around to it.)

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Ooh, yeah, that's a great one!

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Scholastic pitches Bone to a slightly younger audience, but some of your students may like it. And yeah, strong female characters.

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Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, The Golden Compass, A Wrinkle in Time and maybe even The Hunger Games.

Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown seems have been directly based on the archetype, but it may lean a bit on the young side. Lois McMaster Bujold's The Paladin of Souls is one, but it's the very rare Hero's Journey for women over 40.

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Ginger's got the stuff. Dunno why I didn't come up with any of those.

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They do the Hunger Games in 6th grade and A Wrinkle in Time even earlier, to give you an idea of the reading level, but those are all great suggestions--thank you!

Terry Pratchett's Wee Free Men

I've never heard of this. How is that possible? Must remedy instantly.

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Oh! And I wanted to share with all of you my final course design for that Senior Seminar I asked all of you for help planning earlier this year. Here 'tis:

Course Overview:
Poetry, Prose, and Passion, English 12: Nothing inspires writing like passion, and many of the greatest works of literature stem from the divide between our hearts and minds. This seminar will explore emotional extremes, from forbidden and obsessive love to the deepest hatred and desire for revenge. We will explore how gender, sexual orientation, race, class, and personality affect one's passions and ability to achieve them. Texts include Lolita, Hamlet, Angels in America, Pride and Prejudice, Wide Sargasso Sea, and a variety of poetry and short stories. Students will also have the opportunity for self-directed study to celebrate their own literary passions during the second semester, during which they will select a major literary work to study in a small group and teach to the class.

Summer Reading:
Choose two of the following three options: Cat's Eye (Atwood), Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (See), or Les Liaisons Dangereuses (de Laclos translated by Dowson)

• Unit 1: Romantic Passion
  

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen). This unit will focus on the literature of romance and love. Students will read a variety of love poetry (including canonical sonnets) and explore the shifting literary paradigm of love in and out of marriage. We will then focus on Pride and Prejudice and examine its literary impact and place in the Western Canon.

• Unit 2: Forbidden Passion
  

“Humbert was perfectly capable of intercourse with Eve, but it was Lilith he longed for” (Nabokov). This unit will explore forbidden passion, which will build on our study of the more traditional romantic texts from first quarter. Students will examine obsession and forbidden love in Lolita and other short works (poetry, stories, essays).

• Unit 3: Mad Passion
  

“Madness in great ones must not unwatch’d go” (Shakespeare). This unit will examine the causes and consequences of “madness” in literature, including Wide Sargasso Sea’s reimagining of Bertha from Jane Eyre (which all of the students read in tenth grade), which explores the impact of being “other,” and the quintessential passionate madman: Hamlet.

• Unit 4: Political Passion
  

“The great work begins!” (Kushner) Angels in America reflects the twentieth century political movement of the American gay community. We will explore this play in terms of its place in history following the discovery of HIV/AIDS as we examine the concept of literature as activism.

• Unit 5: Personal Passion
  

“The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly” (Hurston). The class will read Their Eyes Were Watching God together to examine a protagonist who follows her own passions and then echo her quest by selecting a text about which they feel passionately to read and later teach to the class. Honors students will do this independently; regular students will work in groups.

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What's an uncanonical sonnet? Or a canonical sonnet, for that matter?

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