Buy it for your daughter: Kung Fu High School

'The novel’s main character, Jen, a half-Latina, half-white 15-year-old, cousin of kung fu master Jimmy, is a girl who can mix it up every bit as fiercely as the boys. “Far gone are the days of girls being made of ‘sugar and spice and everything nice’,” asserts Gattis. “What’s interesting to me is that we’re only recently seeing an increase in a more realistic look at the complex inner workings of females, especially in regard to violent tendencies.”' Author interview here. Order Kung Fu High School (great title) here. Via Maud Newton.