Kiran Millwood Hargrave's Reading List

"Matilda was my first book-hugger book. It was a book I would clutch to me and reread because I wanted it to become physically part of myself. I so recognized this feeling of being isolated. You can find your best friends in books. I was bullied at school because I was quite overweight and I had a mole on my face. These things marked me out as “different”. Also, I loved to read so I’d take myself off to the library, like Matilda did, and get the books off the adult shelves. Then I discovered Matilda who was also doing these things and had the most marvellous revenge on an awful woman. Reading this book, there was an enactment of what I hoped would eventually happen to me. And, being an author is rather like having magical powers. I can use those bullies and put them into books – and have my revenge on them that way! It is a book I find I can reread. It’s not just a book about Matilda, this wonderful heroine, it is also what Roald Dahl says about reading and imagination and books being like ships, books being like lights. In another writer’s hands these ideas could seem sentimental but with Roald Dahl, who is never sentimental and who is always on that edge of danger and always has his characters on those edges of danger, there is never any sense of sentiment."

"This is one of my favourite books. Lyra feels like a natural successor to Matilda. She is a character of action. She isn’t sitting in a corner reading. She is out there and she is having a real effect on her story. She isn’t being buffeted by forces and having to rebel against them, she is out there actively seeking an adventure. I read this when I was eleven and starting secondary school. I remember her really sticking with me not least because she lies so much. Much has been said about her name Lyra and the word lyre. I used to lie quite compulsively, I think bookish people often do. I know it is quite common, children lie. I used to tell really silly ones that I was always going to be caught out with like “we’re moving to Australia”. So, I think this is a valuable thing for a child to see. One of the great things about Pullman is that he never idealises children. They are allowed to be what they are. Children are incredibly cruel, clever, devious, they hate getting into trouble and will lie to get out of it. Pullman presents all that with such love and admiration and that’s what I think makes him such an appealing writer and what makes Lyra such an appealing character. “One of the great things about Pullman is that he never idealises children. They are allowed to be what they are” Joan Aiken and Diana Wynne Jones also wrote brilliant heroines before Northern Lights , but I do feel that Lyra is unique in heralding the first rebel girl in literature and for being so celebrated for this by the author. Aside from the incredible settings and the wild adventures, what I responded to was Lyra and the fact that she lied and those lies got her into trouble. Then she lied again to get out of trouble and this, consequentially, got her into even more trouble. I related to Lyra and saw a lot of hope in her growth. I think reading this book was a step towards my becoming more self-critical as a person, to be presented with a character that was so flawed and yet I loved her so much. This character is flawed and yet is still worthy of attention. When you are young you don’t spend much time reflecting on your actions. This is perhaps why teenage years are such a shock because suddenly all you can think about is, “oh god what did I say, what did I do?”"

"I nearly chose The Lie Tree . But Faith is not fierce and she didn’t sit as comfortably amongst the other girls I’ve chosen. But I needed to have a Frances Hardinge book – I think it gets harder to find, as you get older, books to fall in love with. Like it gets harder to make friends. Discovering Frances Hardinge was a really exciting moment for me. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter There is a nice line drawn between Matilda and Mosca Mye because their powers are that they can read. Unlike Matilda, where the words go inside her and strengthen her core and the power that comes out is from her mind, with Mosca the words themselves are her weapons. She wields them in such a fantastic way. The celebration of swearing for example, when Eponymous Clent and Mosca first have a big argument. They go at each other with all the crudest words they know and this ends with more refined swearing. The sheer luxuriating in words for the fun of it. “There is a nice line drawn between Matilda and Mosca Mye because their powers are that they can read” My choices are very much for people like me, people who are already in love with words. I hope people wouldn’t be put off by this, because this is an amazing book. Mosca Mye can use words fiercely and she can effect change by using her words. She also has a goose called “Saracen” which is brilliant. This book says, ‘Look how powerful words are and how dangerous it can be when they fall into the wrong hands. And how wonderful they can be when they are liberated.’ I learned a load of new words too!"

"This book was a real revelation to me. September is more of an Alice in Wonderland figure. She isn’t the agent for change, she has stepped into this world and she is the vehicle through which we see this world. What she is, is incredibly funny. And funny in a way that children often are in that they don’t want to be funny, they want to be taken seriously. It’s a huge source of frustration to her that she isn’t taken seriously. And as the reader you are complicit in this. I laughed out loud on every page of this book. “September is the polar opposite of some of the other fierce girls I’ve picked” I love how Catherynne Valente updated Alice and gave her such high stakes and the impact that this has on her. September isn’t a bold girl but her desire to have adventures drives her on. By the end of the series she is a queen, so she definitely grows. The book is incredibly inventive. September stands apart from other girls I’ve read about, she is in many ways so ordinary and so powerless. The polar opposite of some of the other fierce girls I’ve picked. She is a sort of cipher in the book. I suppose it is that she keeps going. And often that is all we can do. Keep getting up, keep going to school, keep doing homework, keep facing the bullies. It’s not tremendously glamorous but sometimes surviving is enough and September is a real survivor. I hope I’m not making the book sound dull. The adventure happens to September rather than her affecting the adventure."

"Feo is much closer to the Lyra ilk than to a girl like September. The opening line says it all, “Once upon a time there was a dark and stormy girl.” From the moment it begins, you know what you are getting. Not to say that Rundell hasn’t created a complex and likable character but she felt a completely compelling character as soon as I started to read this book. That’s such an achievement. Feo is very Lyraesque – she feels very contemporary, like a girl of now constrained by the time of then. She has something to say. Feo is extraordinary, possibly the most extraordinary of any of the girls on my list, particularly with her ability to survive in such a brutal landscape. “Feo is an unashamedly idealised heroic girl ” Katherine Rundell has talked about the image that inspired her to write this book, the image of a young girl riding a wolf into Red Square. And that image runs right the way through the book. Feo has this immensely heroic heart. She is never less than a girl who rides a wolf. Some of the other characters I’ve chosen, while fierce in their own specific ways, grow throughout their adventures and their books, they make mistakes, they learn. Whereas with Feo, she is such an incredible heroine from the beginning, and it’s great to have these aspirational heroines who are so mightily impressive, in amongst all those people you can more easily relate to. That’s what I love about Feo. Rundell’s heroines are all very different. But Feo is an unashamedly idealised heroic girl. Books like Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls are popularising that there are many different ways for women and girls to be strong, and be as strong as they need to be. I enjoy books that celebrate idealised strength as well and Feo really embodies this. It’s the perfect book to give to people who don’t read children’s books . Like Joan Aiken there is this warmth and she is never talking down to the reader. I admire the standard she has set for writers of my generation."