Miss Marple for the 9-12's?

Stumbled across a nice surprise this morning - in the Spring issue of Carousel (a magazine about children's books produced in association with the Federation of Children's Book Groups) there was an article titled:

Whodunnits? Crime Stories and How to Solve Them ... Find a Book That You Like!

It was by David Blanch and he included The Case of the London Dragonfish, cover and all. (Not only that, he said nice things about it, which is why I'm blogging away happily here.) One of the things he noticed in his survey of current children's detective books was that "the majority had a female main character ... Interesting? Were all these writers influenced by Miss Marple or do they want to appeal to a female readership?"

Recently I've had to think about this because I'm taking part in a new blog called Girls Heart Books - launched today! Does Slightly belong in a blog like this, I wondered at first? I was afraid she wasn't, well, pink enough. But then I thought, why shouldn't she be there! Have a look and see what you think - the site looks fabulous. (My first posting date is 9th May.)

Did I write Slightly as a girl because I was aiming at a girl readership? Or because I'm a Miss Marple fan? Well, no. I'm not that in control. I wrote Slightly as a girl because she IS a girl. And is she likely to grow up to be Miss Marple in, say, 50 or 60 years? Why ever not!