Having literally written the book on literary heroines, I have a lot of explaining to do. Why did you choose the women you wrote about? How did you decide your favorites?

It's a fairly well-known fact that Max Braithwaite's books Never Sleep Three in a Bed and The Night We Stole the Mountie's Car were a large part of the inspiration for Wind at My Back. But did you know that these weren't the first of Braithwaite's novels to be adapted to the screen?

Woman's faith, and woman's trust -
Write the characters in the dust;
Stamp them on the running stream,
Print them on the moon's pale beam,

It is no surprise that the woman responsible for inspiring an entire generation of young children to read again, was one of the most beloved figures in our End of Summer essay contest.  Here are two impressive essays about J.K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter, written by 13-year-old Julia Mastroianni and Lisa Bendzak.

Whether it is Emma, Elizabeth, Fanny, Marianne, Elinor, Catherine or Anne that you most identify with, we all must be grateful to Jane Austen for creating these iconic women in the first place.  As part of our End of Summer essay contest on the most inspiring women, we received the following pieces dedicated to Austen.  Please add your own thoughts to the discussion on the beloved author’s wide-ranging impact!

It is not surprising that when we asked our fans to write about a woman that has inspired them, a number chose to remember one of the most important figures in history, Anne Frank.  Here is George Argyropoulos’s take on the impact of Anne’s life.

This month, Shop At Sullivan is having a Summer Reading Book Sale, offering up to 50% off selected books!  This is the perfect chance for you to stock up on your reading material, including classic L.M. Montgomery novels, movie companion books, cookbooks, audio books, children’s books and more!  Here is a look at just some of the items on sale.

No matter how much time passes since Charlotte Bronte first wrote her epic novel, Jane Eyre, no one loses interest in the plight of her steadfast heroine, Jane.  But what if the tables were turned and we could judge the story from another viewpoint?  In her 1966 novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys did what nobody else thought to do before: take the reader inside the mind of the madwoman in the attic.

Recently, we brought you news that over the past 20 years, women have not occupied the same number of speaking roles as men in family-friendly films.  Now, new research has shown that the same can be said for children’s literature.  In fact, there were more female heroines featured in books at the turn of the 20th century than there are now.

The top “Sweet Sixteen” heroines in our Ultimate Classical Heroine Contest have now become a group of “Enchanting Eight”.  The voting officially ended at midnight on Sunday and we are left with the following results: