Top ten female villains in children’s books

M.G. Leonard is an English writer with an inordinate fondness for beetles. Her debut novel is Beetle Boy.

One of Leonard's top ten female villains, as shared at the Guardian:

Cruella de Vil in The Hundred And One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith

Even if you’ve never read the book, you’ll know who Cruella de Vil is and what she looks like. Her name an amalgamation of Cruel and Devil, she is a rich, glamourous, heiress, married to a furrier, with no children. Cruella is portrayed as tyrannical, and her husband a silent man who does as he’s told. She wears bold contrasting colours, has a zebra-striped car and the dinner at her flat could easily be a dinner in hades, and for these things, I like her. But, a person can be judged on their treatment of animals, and Cruella drowns kittens and puppies without remorse and desires the pelts of the Dalmatians for a coat.

Read about another entry on the list.

Also see Emerald Fennell's top ten villainesses in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue