For those fed up with Disney Princess culture, these provide an alternative, written and collected by amazing feminists to tell the stories they want their children to hear. These are fairytales specifically–for girl power books more like Harry Potter, check out the heroine’s journey booklist. Also check out the list of nonwhite fairytale princesses.
Picture Books
The Paper Bag Princess Robert N. Munsch
Not All Princesses Dress in Pink Jane Yolen
The Princess Knight Cornelia Funke
Princess Pigsty by Cornelia Funke
Princess Smartypants Babette Cole
The Secret Lives of Princesses Philippe Lechermeier
Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots? Carmela LaVigna Coyle
Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated) Florence Parry Heide
Sleeping Ugly Jane Yolen
Princess Grace by Mary Hoffman
Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio
Ladybug Girl Dresses Up! by Jacky Davis
Sadie: The Paper Crown Princess
Petronella by Jay Williams
Dangerously Ever After
Collections
Don’t Kiss the Frog! Princess Stories with Attitude Fiona Waters
Feminist Fairy Tales Barbara G. Walker
Rapunzel’s Revenge: Fairy Tales for Feminists Shannon Hale
Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life and Times James Finn Garner
Once Upon a More Enchanted Time James Finn Garner
Cloaked in Red and The Rumpelstiltskin Problem Vivian Vande Velde,
Barchers, Suzanne I. Wise Women: Folk and Fairy Tales from Around the World. Libraries Unlimited, Colorado, 1990.
Chinen, Allan B. Waking the World : Classic Tales of Women and the Heroic Feminine. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1996.
Estes, Clarissa Pinkola. The Dangerous Old Woman: Myths and Stories of the Wise Old Woman Archetype. New York: Random House Large Print, 1996.
King, Coretta Scott. Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales.
Lambert, Johanna, Ed. Wise Women of the Dreamtime: Aboriginal Tales of the Ancestral Powers. Collected by K. Langloh Parker. Inner Traditions International: Rochester, Vermont, 1993.
Lipman,Doug. Folktales of Strong Women
Lurie, Alison. Clever Gretchen.
Monaghan, Patricia. The Book of Goddesses and Heroines
Phelps, Ethel Johnston. Tatterhood and Other Tales: Stories of Magic and Adventure
Phelps, Ethel Johnston. The Maid of the North: Feminist Folk Tales from Around the World.
Rush, Barbara. The Book of Jewish Women’s Tales.
Ragan, Kathleen. Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters.
San Souci, Robert D. Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend and Tall Tale
Yolen, Jane. Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls
Katrin Tchana and Trina Schart Hyman The Serpent Slayer and Other Stories of Strong Women
Girls To The Rescue 1: Folk Tales From Around The World by Bruce Lansky
Online
Feministsf.org a wonderful directory of bibliographies, links, and criticism.
Women in Mythology, Religion, and Herstory goddess legends
New Fairy Tales by Rosemary Lake with a feminist spin
Tale types
The Huntress (girl outperforms her brothers)
Tam Lin (girl rescues lover or famiy member from fairyland)
Cupid and Psyche
Beauty and the Beast
AT425 The Search for the Lost Husband
Tatterhood/Kate Crackernuts (the wild sister and the pretty sister)
H506.12, H551.0.1 through H561.1.2 and H582.1.1, and J1545 through J1547.
Other tales to search for
Amazon tales from Kodiak Island
Kids’ Novels
Breadcrumbs Anne Ursu (Snow Queen)
Goose Chase Patrice Kindl (Goose Girl)
Into The Wild Sarah Beth Durst (various)
The Ordinary Princess MM Kaye (various)
Toads and Diamonds Heather Tomlinson
East (East of the Sun, West of the Moon) Edith Pattou
The Swan Kingdom by Zoë Marriott
Entwined (Twelve Dancing Princesses) Heather Dixon
Ella Enchanted (Cinderella) Gail Carson Levine
Coraline Neil Gaimen
The Last Dragon Jane Yolen
Patricia Wrede
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles
Michael Buckley and Peter Ferguson
The Sisters Grimm series
Robin McKinley
Beauty (Beauty and the Beast)
Rose Daughter (Beauty and the Beast)
Dawn Lairamore
Ivy’s Ever After
Ivy and the Meanstalk
Terry Pratchett
The Wee Free Men
A Hat Full of Sky
Wintersmith
I Shall Wear Midnight
Peter S. Beagle
The Last Unicorn
Catherynne M. Valente and Ana Juan .
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
Juliet Marillier
Wildwood Dancing and Cybele’s Secret
Robin McKinley
The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword
Novels For Teens
Terry Pratchett
Wyrd Sisters (Hamlet/Macbeth)
Witches Abroad (Cinderella and others)
Lords and Ladies (Fairy Rescue)
Jim C. Hines
The Stepsister Scheme (Cinderella)
The Mermaid’s Madness (Little Mermaid)
Red Hood’s Revenge
The Snow Queen’s Shadow
Malinda Lo
Huntress
Ash (Cinderella)
Mercedes Lackey
The Black Swan (Swan Lake)
Firebird
Elemental Masters series
The Fire Rose (Beauty and the Beast)
Gates of Sleep (Sleeping Beauty)
Phoenix and Ashes (Cinderella)
Reserved for the Cat (Puss in Boots)
The Serpent’s Shadow (Snow White)
Unnatural Issue (Tattercoats)
Home from the Sea (Selkie)
500 Kingdoms series
The Fairy Godmother (Mixed)
Fortune’s Fool (Little Mermaid, Basilisk)
One Good Knight (St. George, Perseus)
The Snow Queen
The Sleeping Beauty
Beauty and the Werewolf
A Tangled Web (Persephone)
Julliet Marillier (all this author’s books are heavier with fairytale tropes than most fantasy)
Daughter of the Forest (Wild Swans)
Heir to Sevenwaters (Fairy Rescue)
Seer of Sevenwaters (Selkie)
Wolfskin (The Singing Bones)
Wildwood Dancing (Dancing Princesses/Frog Prince)
Heart’s Blood (Beauty and the Beast)
Dennis L. McKiernan
Once Upon a Winter’s Night (East o’ the Sun)
Once Upon a Summer Day (Sleeping Beauty)
Once Upon an Autumn Eve (Fairy Rescue, Glass Mountain)
Once Upon a Spring Morn (Childe Roland and others)
Once Upon a Dreadful Time
Solstice Wood (Fairy Rescue) Patricia A. McKillip
Beauty Sherri S. Tepper (Sleeping Beauty and others)
Maureen McGowan
Cinderella: Ninja Warrior
Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer
Marissa Meyer
Cinder: Book One in the Lunar Chronicles
Scarlet
Holly Black
Tithe
Valiant
Ironside
Jane Yolen
Sister Light, Sister Dark
White Jenna
The One-Armed Queen
Movies, Musicals, and Television (Ages Vary)
Labyrinth
Mirrormask
The Wizard of Oz
Return to Oz
The 10th Kingdom
Xena: Warrior Princess
Wicked the Musical
Into the Woods
The Last Unicorn
The Mists of Avalon
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Dark Crystal
Mythquest
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Firefly
Ever After
The Shrek Movies
Criticism
Bernheimer, Kate. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales (Editor)
Estés, Clarissa Pinkola, Women Who Run With the Wolves
Gould, Joan, Spinning Straw into Gold
Orenstein,Peggy. Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture
Tatar, Maria M., The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales
Von Franz, Marie-Louise, The Feminine in Fairy Tales
—, Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion
Warner, Maria, From the Beast to the Blonde
Valerie Estelle Frankel's Author Page 