For an introduction to the historical context and critical interpretation of girls' literature, you may wish to consult these secondary sources, available in Perkins Library Stacks.

• Allen, Marjorie N. What Are Little Girls Made Of?: A Guide to Female Role Models in Children's Books. New York: Facts on file, 1999.
• Avery, Gillian. Childhood's Pattern: A Study of Heroes and Heroines of Children's Fiction 1770-1950. London: Hodder & Soughton, 1975.
• Berg, Temma F. Anne of Green Gables: A Girl's Reading. Children's Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 4 (Winter 1984-5) pp. 124-127.
• Cadogan, Mary and Patricia Craig. You're a Brick, Angela!: A New Look at Girls' Fiction from 1839 to 1975. London: Golancz, 1976.
• Carpenter, Humphrey. Secret Gardens: A Study of the Golden Age of Children's Literature. London: Allen & Unwin, 1985.
• Crouch, Marcus. The Nesbit Tradition: The Children's Novel 1945-1970. London: Ernest Benn, 1972.
• Dodson, Shireen. 100 Books for Girls to Grow On. New York: Harper Collins, 1998. Includes plot synopses and quizzes.
• Foster, Shirley and Judy Simons. What Katy Read: Feminist Re-readings of "Classic" Stories for Girls. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1995.
• Gorham, Deborah. The Victorian Girl and the Feminine Ideal. London: Croom Helm, 1982.
• Hewins, Caroline Maris. A Mid-Century Child and her Books. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1926.
• Inness, Sherrie A., ed. Nancy Drew and Company : Culture, Gender, and Girls' Series. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, c1997.
• Mason, Bobbie Ann. The Girl Sleuth: A Feminist Guide. Old Westbury, NY: Feminist Press, 1975.
• McGillis, Roderick. A Little Princess: Gender and Empire. New York: Twayne Publishers, c1996.
• McRobbie, Angela. Feminism and Youth Culture: From 'Jackie' to 'Just Seventeen.' London: Macmillan, 1991.
• Mitchell, Sally. The New Girl: Girls' Culture in England, 1880-1915. New York: Columbia University Press, c1995.
• Pierce, Anna Eloise. Catalog of literature for advisers of young women and girls; an annotated list of more than two thousand titles of the most representative and useful books and periodical articles for the use of deans and other advisers of young women and girls. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1923.
• Reynolds, Kimberly. Girls Only? Gender and Popular Children's Fiction in Britain, 1880-1910. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Press, 1989.
• Rowbotham, Judith. Good Girls Make Good Wives: Guidance for Girls in Victorian Fiction. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989.
• Salmon, Edward J. 'What Girls Read.' Nineteenth Century, vol. 20, no. 116 (1886), pp. 516-527.
• Saxton, Ruth O., ed. The Girl: Constructions of the Girl in Contemporary Fiction by Women. New York: Saint Martin's Press, 1998.
• White, Barbara Anne. Growing Up Female : Adolescent Girlhood in American Fiction. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985.

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