Harriet the Spy

Read My Bitch is a brand-new audio segment that features Bitch Magazine readers and subscribers sharing one of their favorite articles from the archives by reading it aloud and discussing it afterwards. For our first episode, Kristin reads aloud "Harriet and Claudia, where have you gone? Notes on the gender divide in children's literature," by Monica T. Nolan, which was printed in Issue 15, Winter 2002. Kristin reads aloud a sizable excerpt from the piece, and, being in the publishing industry herself, discusses how she relates both personally and professionally to the article, which covers how independent, young female protagonists are unfortunately few and far between. You can subscribe to Read My Bitch on our iTunes channel, along with other Bitch audio programs.

Peggy Orenstein grapples with it and so do many other feminist mamas, aunts, sisters, cousins, dads and uncles: what to buy your girl-feminist. A Bitch reader named Maura recently wrote to us asking readers to weigh in about the "best books for budding feminists," especially six- and eight-year-old girls.

So, please take two seconds to channel your feminist girl-self and talk about the fiction that made you feel like you could do anything and become anyone.

I asked Kimmie David, one of the owners of Bluestockings—the radical bookstore, fair trade cafe, and activist center in the Lower East Side of Manhattan—to share her picks for the best feminist fiction or nonfiction books for girls. Read on for her recommendations!