DAKOTA BALMORE'S FAVORITE BOOKS

Books about young girls that have affected my writing the most.

LITTLE WOMEN

The classics are the best. In writing, character is everything. For girls, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is inspirational. I love books that show females earlier in our history who demand their place in the world, and Josephine March is just such character. Jo's drive to never give up stands as a hallmark for all girls with dreams to follow. I had her in mind when I wrote Growing Up Victorian.

WIVES AND DAUGHTERS

The classics again, this time an old classic rediscovered. Wives and Daughters was Elizabeth Gaskell's last novel, it was rediscovered to the world through the BBC mini-series of the same name. Written in the early 1850's, Ms. Gaskell died before completing the final chapters. Her publisher had to complete the work. A difficult book to start reading, its technique was common for the day. One must wade through a few thousand words of exposition before the story actually starts. If you breeze through it and gleen what you can, however, you will be rewarded with one of the richest stories ever told from a young girl's point of view about 1830's England ... and, in Molly Gibson, you will be introduced to the sweetest character in all of English Literature, if not all the world's literature ... and if you've ever had to play the role of your family's secret keeper, you will certainly identify with Molly. She is simply my favorite character of all time and cudos to the BBC production for bringing her and the rest of the characters to life. It is difficult to imagine anyone else in the role of Molly except Justine Waddell. I just think of Molly in Justine's performance, and happy tears form in my eyes. I start off Growing Up Victorian with a quote from Molly Gibson that defines the premise of my book and captures the frustration young females felt on the threshhold of adulthood in the 1800's. Read it..

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES

Wow! Every girl who reads needs to read about L. M. Montgomery's Anne Shirley. One of the most beloved YA characters of all time, it's difficult not to get caught up in all her hair-brained, flawed, yet lovable adventures. This work shows that a character can be heavily flawed, yet still loveable. The mini-series is so finely done, that it is hard to imagine anyone but Megan Follows in the role of Anne Shirley (that's Anne with an "e")..

POLLYANNA

The definitive work by Eleanor Hodgman Porter on how a young girl can influence the lives of others for the better. Walt Disney did a fine job capturing the girl's infectious optimism that so changed the lives of the townspeople forever. The scene when Pollyanna confronts the pastor outdoors rehearsing one of his angry sermons and tells him how many happy verses there are in the Bible, provided some inspiration in my novel A Lamb of God. The difference between Ms. Porter's Pollyanna Whittier and my Angela Vitali is that Angela is an involuntary, unsuspecting Pollyanna.