Podkayne of Mars

Podkayne of Mars (1962) is a young-adult SF novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It is the only one of Heinlein's books until very late in his career to have a female protagonist.

The story is of a young human girl living in a Mars colony. She dreams of being a space pilot, and also wants to get married and have babies. She struggles with her younger brother, Clark, who is both very smart and very spoiled. The story builds up into a family space trip, and eventually to Podkayne getting herself kidnapped through bad judgment. In the original published version of the story, she survives, but in Heinlein's draft (published for the first time in 1995), she dies at the end of the novel.

Of all the early Heinlein novels, Podkayne of Mars is the one most likely to engender feminist rage. Podkayne starts out as a likable heroine, who wants a career and adventure, but she rapidly transforms into the prototypical Heinlein heroine: capable of adventure, and generally level-headed, while at the same time absolutely and unshakably prioritizing being a wife and mother above anything else.