With Kit Kittredge: An American Girl finally opening in limited release on Wednesday, it seemed like a good time to take a look at other films girls in the same age demographic might also enjoy. As a mother of three daughters, I like to seek out films that have strong female characters. So many of the roles for females in Hollywood either fall into blatant stereotypes or position young girls and women as existing on this planet primarily for the pleasures of the male half of the species, and I don't want my girls growing up believing the images of women they're exposed to through the media. Of course, everything in life doesn't have to have a political agenda -- what fun would that be? So some of these are just films my own daughters very much enjoy, that the girl in your life might like also.

Here are seven great films for fans of American Girl books and movies ... let me know what others I've missed that you like; with only seven slots to work with, I had to leave out a lot of films I otherwise would have included ...

Let me say this right up front: I loved Nancy Drew books when I was a kid, and I have a 10-year-old daughter who loves them just as much now as I did years ago. So ever since it was first announced a Nancy Drew movie was being made, and that it was going to star Emma Roberts (Aquamarine), my daughter and I have been eagerly anticipating the film's release date. I hoped "they" wouldn't mess it up -- it feels sometimes like there's this office full of mysterious "them" out there in Hollywood somewhere, who are paid large salaries to do little more than sit around drumming up ways to screw up potentially good films. Fortunately for the tween set, at whom Nancy Drew is primarily targeted, "they" were apparently otherwise engaged while this film was being developed, because it's pretty darn good.

I'd wondered how the filmmakers would handle bringing Nancy Drew into 2007 --after all, this is the teen detective who sleuths while wearing neatly-pressed dresses and polished penny loafers, and whose sometime-boyfriend, the wholesome and sporty Ned Nickerson, wishes his gal would rather bake pies than solve mysteries. Nancy's transition to the 21st century was actually handled rather deftly: the film is set in today, but Nancy, whose mother died when she was a baby, lives in the past. She makes her own nifty-looking clothes from her mother's old dress patterns (look for Nancy's nifty retro look to be a new fashion trend with the tween and teen set if this film really hits big), drives a sporty, powder-blue vintage roadster, and keeps her sleuthing stuff organized in a handy kit complete with a silver tin for carrying around homemade lemon bars and blondies (all the better for bribing bureaucrats when you need to get at confidential information).

This upcoming Nancy Drew movie must be off the chain, y'all! Generally, you don't hear about a sequel until ... the first movie has come out. And even then, it helps that the movie is a success. Well, Warner Brothers must have complete and total faith in this project, because they've announced Part 2 before Part 1 has even hit theaters. Emma Roberts (niece of Julia, daughter of direct-to-video staple Eric) is playing Nancy Drew, and it looks like she's got a franchise on her hands. Producer Jerry Weintraub and director Andrew Fleming are doing both Drew films with Roberts, as well as something called Rodeo Girl, another family film, with Roberts portraying a "debutante equestrian" (can you put that on a resume?) who tries to win over a cowboy by entering a rodeo competition. Fleming did the excellent political comedy Dick and the not-so-excellent remake of The In-Laws.

The character of Nancy Drew has been around in book form since the 30s, and she has made it to the big and small screen many times before. For those of you concerned that Nancy '07 will be modernized into a Paris Hilton clone, Weintraub offers this reassurance: "She's not a hip kid. She's right out of a Norman Rockwell painting." The plot of the new Drew has Nancy joining her father (played by Tate Donovan) on a business trip to Los Angeles, "where she happens upon clues to a murder mystery involving a movie star." Rachael Leigh Cook (of the criminally underrated -- seriously -- Josie and the Pussycats) will also appear. Nancy Drew wasn't really on my radar when I was a kid, but I know there's enough material to keep this series going for a long, long time. My question is, when are we going to see The Boxcar Children up on the big screen! I used to love those wacky orphans!