Adequate female representation in media is hard to find. Major film studios stay clear of women main characters, girls are reduced to sidekicks, even within the hundreds of Funko Pop vinyl figures there aren’t many female toys. But while browsing through a Half-Price Bookstore, I stumbled upon a genre I’d long forgotten, and one full of well-written female characters – early young adult fiction.

I glanced over shelves in the young adult fiction section of the store, situated so close to the children’s section that some early-reading chapter books were spilling over. Since it was summer, a lot of the books on display featured summer camp, summer vacation, and even summer mysteries. 

Young adult mysteries? I instantly recalled spending fourth grade with the Sammy Keyes novels. A (sometimes) fearless young girl solved neighborhood crimes with the help of her two female best friends, getting into trouble both at school and with the police, with a (now) surprising lack of supervision. But being unquestionably allowed to adventure was what reading as a kid was all about.

Now searching strictly for nostalgia, I found the Sammy Keyes series in that young-adult section, on the bottom self, basically sitting on the floor. Flipping through the pages reminded me of a completely different series I started reading in fourth grade, and finished two years later – Abby Hayes. While the names were similar, the books were almost total opposites, with thoroughly different characters – not a surprise, since women (even young ones) are each their own unique person. Abby Hayes led a more normal life, her books taking the form of a journal with notes on her fifth-grade class, her friends, and her enemies. She was also allowed out on her own, but her town seemed much less crime-ridden.

It really made me wonder why after growing up, practical female-centered stories are so hard to find. And why are some people so hesitant to create them? Obviously this is slowly changing, with comic books like Lumberjanes and audiences’ undying love for shows like Community. But the extreme support behind these realistic shows is a reaction to previously being denied them. It’s still a problem that female representation stops at the pre-teen level. But I was in the apparent answer to everything – a bookstore. Without anything to go on, I looked for the perfect combination of elements: a summer mystery with a female lead. This is what I found.

Stumbling upon Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage was the luckiest find I could have made. I might say I’m sorry I didn’t read it back when it came out in 2012, but the beginning of Summer 2014 couldn’t have been more perfect. I loved the feeling of being in the South and the dialogue that came along with it. Mostly I loved seeing characters – girls with more than one personality trait and one emotion – and the families, friends, and neighbors who support them. Even better– there’s a sequel.