Top Ten Tuesday: Sidekick Characters

For That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday

July 9: Character Freebie (any topic you want that deals with book characters!)

 

1. John Watson from Sherlock Homes by Arthur Conan Doyle- He narrates Homes’ adventures and sort of helps him function. Because while Sherlock Homes is pretty intelligent he doesn’t really thrive in all situations. Watson smooths the way for him at times.

2. Tinkerbell from Peter Pan by JM Barrie – Because every permanently immature boy hero needs a slightly homicidal pixie to hang out with.

3. Nelly Dean in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte -Sidekick and confident for several characters and she narrates the whole book. She’s a frequently overlooked character but an important one.

4. Diana Barry in the Anne books by LM Montgomery- No she’s not as fun or adventurous as Anne, but few people are! She’s a great foil though, and their friendship gives Anne some of her best moments.

5. George and Bess in the Nancy Drew books by Carolyn Keene – One’s a tomboy, the other is very feminine, but both are willing to question suspects, follow clues and chase villains, simply because that’s what Nancy does.

6. Ron and Hermione in the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling – Arguably these two are more active than Harry.  They’re certainly along for the ride no matter what. They’re true friends and they often call Harry out when he’s wrong. That’s an important service!

7. Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell- Most readers were left wondering what would become of Scarlett without Rhett at the end. I was just as interested in what she’d do without Melanie. Throughout the entire novel Scarlett had seen Melanie as a rival, but Melanie had behaved as a best friend and Scarlett relied on her far more than she realized.

8. Bob from The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher- Because every professional wizard needs a snarky skull sidekick.

9. Barbara Havers in the Inspector Lynley novels by Elizabeth George- I’m less enthralled with these after the last couple of books have been disappointments but Barbara makes a lovably fashion challenged cop sidekick. She’s definitely a favorite character who is too often sideline in favor of other, less interesting, characters (IMO).

10. Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien- I’m actually not the world’s biggest Tolkien fan (I know, kind of sacrilegious for a fantasy writer to admit!) but come on, this kind of goes without saying…

 

 

 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Terrifying Things in Children’s Books

For That Artsy  Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday

This week’s topic was:

May 21: Books That I Refuse to Let Anyone Touch (too special/valuable, perhaps?) (submitted by Savannah Grace @ Scattered Scribblings)

But I don’t have any books that I won’t let anyone touch, so I decided to make up my own topic again.

1. The Witches by Roald Dahl– When the witches remove their human faces to reveal their witch faces underneath. The idea of peeling off your own skin really creeped me out (still does actually!)
2. Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery by Deborah and James Howe– I remember my teacher reading this to the class in first or second grade. It’s a pretty dumb story about a vampire bunny that sucks the juice out of vegetables. I think it scared me because the teacher explained that it as based on Dracula and told us about Dracula (including the fact that the character was loosely based on Vlad the Impaler) so I had nightmares about a combination vampire bunny/Dracula sucking my blood at night…
3. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle– An evil, disembodied brain tortures a child who can’t bounce a ball properly. That is my most vivid memory of this book. Yes apparently there’s a lot of other stuff that happens, but something about that scene stays with me. Maybe because I’m not good at bouncing balls either…
4. Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak– In some ways I actually think this books is beautiful, but as a kid the idea of a baby being abducted by goblins and replaced with an ice sculpture scared me! Actually I think the fact that it happens while his sister wasn’t looking scared me the most. I really identified with how guilty she must feel. Fortunately she gets him back.
5. Mary Poppins by PL Travers– I had to google to find out which book this was, because I couldn’t remember. Actually I couldn’t remember anything about it other than the scene where Mary Poppins takes the children to a candy store and the owner, breaks off her fingers (made of candy canes) and gives them to the children to eat. Major nightmares! Thank goodness that scene didn’t make it into the movie!
6. Peter Pan by JM Barrie– I loved this book some of it is scary! The idea of a crocodile biting off someone’s hand always sounded painful. Also, Tinkerbell was pretty scary when you think about it. She tries to get the lost boys to kill Wendy. That’s pretty treacherous!
7. Cinderella- In one version of the fairy tale (I don’t remember if it was this one) the step sisters cut off their heels and toes to try to get their feet into the slipper. That gave me some very disturbing mental images of maimed feet and slippers filled with blood.
8. Sweet Valley Twins and Friends: The Christmas Ghost by Francine Pascal– I think I read this in second or third grade. I knew the story of A Christmas Carol due to Mickey’s Christmas Carol and a few other kid friendly adaptations, but something about the contemporary suburban setting felt really familiar. The ghosts in that setting really freaked me out and caused several sleepless nights!
9. The Monster At The End of This Book by Jon Stone and Mike Smollen- I admired Grover as a kid. When I learned that my dad didn’t have a middle name, I even granted him the moniker “Grover” to use. So if Grover was telling me there was a monster at the end of this book and I should stop reading before I got there, I was going to listen! The books stayed safely in my bookshelf until one day when my mom, intent on ignoring the wise muppet’s advice, took it out and read it to the end. I was terrified until she got there.
10. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett– Even though this is and was one of my favorites, as a kid the idea of losing a parent terrified me (well it still does…) and I think I really identified with Sara when I read this.

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters That Remind Me of Me

For That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday:

May 7: Characters That Remind Me of Myself

I did something like this a while back, but I think I may be able to come up with a few other books….

1. Sonja in Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorothe Nors– Actually while in some ways I have a lot in common with Sonja (like a fear of driving!) in other ways we’re very different. But we are both single women, living and working in a big city and trying to stay connected: to our friends and our families and our lives in general. That effort, and the anxiety around it, as something I definitely related to hen reading this book.

2. Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling– I’m definitely the bookish, sensible one in almost any group! I don’t make friends quickly or easily but when I do, I’m also fiercely loyal. I guess I can deal with some of the awkwardness involved in being like Hermione as long as I have some of her good qualities too.

 

3. Olivia Curtis in Invitation To the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann– I haven’t (yet) read The Weather in the Streets, which is this books sequel, so I don’t yet know what becomes of Olivia but at 17 she was much like me at that age: simultaneously eager for growth and change, and afraid of it. She’s very sensitive to the feelings of others, but often she projects her own thoughts and ideas onto them, without much basis. That’s something I also related to.

4. Cassandra Mortmain in I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith- Like me, Cassandra feels everything very deeply and she replays it for herself after the fact. Her musings on what she should have said/done in different situations definitely rang true, as does her dedication to try to capture something real and concrete, even as things seem to slip through her fingers.

5. Margaret Schlegel in Howard’s End  by EM Forester– She’s practical but she still has high ideals that she holds dear. She’s imaginative and loving.  She is very much the caretaker for her family and she embraces the role, she doesn’t resent it. Obviously her circumstances are very different to mind, but I’ve always found her an admirable, classy character.

 

6. Miss Pettigrew in Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day by Winifred Watson– I’m not as bad as Miss Pettigrew but I definitely have a tendency to be a bit of a straitlaced wallflower. That’s why I try to keep company with the Delysia LaFosses of the world: I would wouldn’t want to only live for a day, and they remind me that there’s a whole world out there.

 

7. The Second Mrs. DeWinter from Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier– I can definitely understand what it’s like to feel like you can never live up to some ideal- regardless of how real that actually ideal actually is. I think I’m definitely stronger than this character but she speaks to many of my insecurities and the fear of not being good enough.

 

8. Peter Pan from Peter Pan by JM Barrie– Again this isn’t a literal “OMG we have so much in common! Who could possibly tell us apart?” connection. Rather it’s a sense of recognition and sympathy.  When I was a kid I never wanted to grow up either. Adulthood looked like it was difficult, boring, expensive and exhausting. But unlike Peter, I didn’t have a choice in the matter. In some ways I am grateful for the wisdom that’s come with age, and the things I’m able to do now that I couldn’t as a child. But I sometimes have a wish for some pixie dust and a chance to run off to Never Neverland…

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Worlds Where You’d Like to Live (Or Visit)

For That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday:

May 29: Bookish Worlds I’d Want to/Never Want to Live In

I decided to go with worlds I’d actually want to live in, since places, where I wouldn’t want to live, seems a bit too easy. Pretty much any dystopia qualifies (and a few are uncomfortably similar to the world I actually live in…) These all have drawbacks of course, but I could be happy in most of these places. Granted, I’d rather visit most of them, than live there.

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern-

“They are enthusiasts, devotees. Addicts. Something about the circus stirs their souls, and they ache for it when it is absent. They seek each other out, these people of such specific like mind. They tell of how they found the circus, how those first few steps were like magic. Like stepping into a fairy tale under a curtain of stars… When they depart, they shake hands and embrace like old friends, even if they have only just met, and as they go their separate ways they feel less alone than they had before.”

2. Peter Pan by JM Barrie–

“I don’t know if you have ever seem a map of a person’s mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a child’s mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a card, and these are probably roads in the island; for the Neverland is always more or less and island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose.”

3. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum– Note that I said Baum’s Oz, not Gregory Maguire’s!

“The cyclone had set the house down gently, very gently – for a cyclone—in the midst of a country of marvelous beauty. There were lovely patches of green sward all about, with stately trees bearing rich and luscious fruits. Banks of gorgeous flowers were on every hand, and birds with rare and brilliant plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes. A little way off was a small brook, rushing and sparkling along between green banks, and murmuring in a voice very grateful to a little girl who had lived so long on the dry, gray prairies.”

4. Prince Edward Island in most of LM Montgomery’s work.

“It was November–the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind-songs in the pines. Anne roamed through the pineland alleys in the park and, as she said, let that great sweeping wind blow the fogs out of her soul.”

–Anne of Green Gables

“It was a lovely afternoon – such an afternoon as only September can produce when summer has stolen back for one more day of dream and glamour.”

-Emily Climbs

“But now she loved winter. Winter was beautiful “up back” – almost intolerably beautiful. Days of clear brilliance. Evenings that were like cups of glamour – the purest vintage of winter’s wine. Nights with their fire of stars. Cold, exquisite winter sunrises. Lovely ferns of ice all over the windows of the Blue Castle. Moonlight on birches in a silver thaw. Ragged shadows on windy evenings – torn, twisted, fantastic shadows. Great silences, austere and searching. Jewelled, barbaric hills. The sun suddenly breaking through grey clouds over long, white Mistawis. Ice-grey twilights, broken by snow-squalls, when their cosy living-room, with its goblins of firelight and inscrutable cats, seemed cosier than ever. Every hour brought a new revalation and wonder.”

–The Blue Castle

5. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

“She stood for a moment looking out at a slowly moving view of the hills, watching heather slide past underneath the door, feeling the wind blow her wispy hair, and listening to the rumble and grind of the big black stones as the castle moved.”

6. Harry Potter series by JK Rowling -Note I’d want to visit her wizarding world minus the Death Eaters

She pulled the door wide. The Entrance Hall was so big you could have fitted the whole of the Dursleys’ house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.

–Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

7. Garden Spells and First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen- Bascomb NC

“Business was doing well, because all the locals knew that dishes made from the flowers that grew around the apple tree in the Waverley garden could affect the eater in curious ways. The biscuits with lilac jelly, the lavender tea cookies, and the tea cakes made with nasturtium mayonnaise the Ladies Aid ordered for their meetings once a month gave them the ability to keep secrets. The fried dandelion buds over marigold-petal rice, stuffed pumpkin blossoms, and rose-hip soup ensured that your company would notice only the beauty of your home and never the flaws. Anise hyssop honey butter on toast, angelica candy, and cupcakes with crystallized pansies made children thoughtful. Honeysuckle wine served on the Fourth of July gave you the ability to see in the dark. The nutty flavor of the dip made from hyacinth bulbs made you feel moody and think of the past, and the salads made with chicory and mint had you believing that something good was about to happen, whether it was true or not.”

–Garden Spells

“On the day the tree bloomed in the fall, when its white apple blossoms fell and covered the ground like snow, it was tradition for the Waverleys to gather in the garden like survivors of some great catastrophe, hugging one another, laughing as they touched faces and arms, making sure they were all okay, grateful to have gotten through it.”

–First Frost

8. The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff– Templeton NY

“Then, when we had done so, we put our hands upon the freezing cold monster, our monster. And this is what we felt: vertigo, an icicle through our strong hearts, our long-lost childhoods. Sunshine in a field and crickets and the sweet tealeaf stink of a new ball mitt and a rock glinting with mica and a chaw of bubblegum wrapping in sweet sweet tendrils down our throats and the warm breeze up our shorts and the low vibrato of lake loons and the sun and the sun and the warm sun and this is what we felt; the sun.”

9. There’s No Place Like Here by Cecilia Ahearn

“I should have been afraid, walking through a mountainside in the dark by myself. Instead, I felt safe, surrounded by the songs of birds, engulfed by the scents of sweet moss and pine, and cocooned in a mist that contained a little bit of magic.”

 

10. Griffin and Sabine trilogy by Nick Bantcock

“I could see sunlight making exquisite patterns on the water’s surface above me. Everything seemed fascinating and very slow. All around me lionfish darted like golden suns and moons in an alchemists’s dream. I looked down to where a vast labyrinth of black seaweed awaited me.” – Sabine’s Notebook

Top Ten Tuesday: Children’s Books I Appreciate More As An Adult

April 10: Books I Loved but Will Never Re-Read (submitted by Brandyn @ Goingforgoldilocks)

I couldn’t think of much that fit this weeks topic so I changed it a bit. Rather than look at books I liked but wouldn’t want to reread,  I’m going to talk about books that I liked but only (fully) appreciated upon rereading them years later. As a teacher I reread  a lot of children’s books and often get a very different impression of them, as an adult.

1. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein– As a kid, this story made me so sad. The boy takes everything from the tree, and the tree just gives it happily. But I had to teach it to my class as an adult, and so I reread and realized that it’s a metaphor for the relationship between a parent and a child. The tree loves the boy unconditionally. The boy loves the tree but feels the need to leave the tree and make a life for himself elsewhere. However, he returns at various points for support/guidance/branches. The tree always gives it, in the same way a parent loves and supports a grown child.

2. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams– This is another book that totally went over my head as a little kid. I mean I appreciated the story about how the boy’s love for the rabbit makes it real. But a lot of it is really about what it means to grow up and grow old, and how that affects our relationships. I think that if I were to pick it up again thirty years from now, I’d probably spot other things that I didn’t get rereading it recently.

 

3. Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney– I happened across this essay about this book a few weeks ago and vaguely remembered the book from my childhood. I reread it and discovered a beautiful story about what “a life well lived” really means. Of course, the answer is different for different people, but for the titular character, it means having a sense of wonder and leaving something beautiful behind.

4. Charlotte’s Web by EB White- I liked this book a lot as a kid. In the end, I think I saw Charlotte’s children (whom Wilber befriends) as his way of replacing her. I don’t think there was much judgment on my part for that. But as an adult, having experienced both friendship and grief, I give a lot more weight to this sentence: “Wilbur never forgot Charlotte. Although he loved her children and grandchildren dearly, none of the new spiders ever quite took her place in his heart. She was in a class by herself. It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.” I understand now, in a way that I didn’t as a child, that we can find new love in our hearts but we can’t replace the people we’ve lost.

5. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett- This was a favorite of mine as a kid, but as an adult, I definitely see Uncle Archibold and his actions differently. I think for a while I saw him as almost villainous as a kid. I saw the ending as his reformation. Now, reading it, I see that he was a character torn up by grief over the loss of his wife, and trying desperately to protect his child in the only way that he knew how.

 

6. Peter Pan by JM Barrie– I loved Peter Pan as a kid. He had it all, his own magical land where he could be a kid forever and play with mermaids and fairies and other children. What else could a child want? But even as I kid I sensed some sadness in him and now I understand it’s because he wouldn’t grow up. Children, even if they don’t like the idea of growing up, are essentially future-oriented. Without a future, Peter lives in an eternal present. And while he has a lot of playmates, he lacks a family. “There could not have been a lovelier sight; but there was none to see it except a little boy who was staring in at the window. He had ecstasies innumerable that other children can never know; but he was looking through the window at the one joy from which he must be for ever barred.”

7. Amelia Bedelia by Peggie Parish- I remember that this used to crack me up as a kid. I would laugh so hard that my stomach would hurt. Recently, I used this book to teach my class about puns and idioms. I realized that even though the humor still holds up, it’s also an illustration of the fact that people communicate in different ways (even when they’re technically speaking the same language) and understand things differently. It’s a good lesson to remember.

8. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown– Yes, hear me out on this one! When was the last time you took a moment to appreciate the moon? Or the clocks in your room? Or the socks? As a kid, I remember reading this with my dad before bedtime and then saying goodnight to the things in my room. I still think there’s something to be said for looking at the ordinary things in your life, the things you don’t really notice, and just acknowledging them.

9. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle- As a kid, I definitely enjoyed the story about a girl traveling through space and time to rescue her dad, alongside her brother and her secret crush.  But rereading recently allowed me to see that there was so much more to it. At one point a character says “Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself.” I don’t think I had any idea what that statement meant when I first read it. But now it seems like the perfect thing to tell a heroine who doesn’t fit into what the world expects of her, or what she expects of herself. And that’s not even getting into some of the scientific, religious, and philosophical themes in the book!

10. Cinderella– As a kid, I was familiar with many different versions of Cinderella from around the world because I would compare and contrast them. I loved that all of them had some form of magic and that Cinderella got her victory over her tormenters and lived happily ever after. As a teen (and developing feminist) I scorned Cinderella as the heroine who needs her fairy godmother to wave her magic wand to produce a prince who could provide a happy ending. But as an adult, I see it differently. Cinderella is a heroine who survives years of abuse at the hands of her family without losing her characteristic kindness and good heart. I think she deserves some credit there. What she really wanted wasn’t a prince at all: it was a night off and a chance to go to a party. It was only after she met the prince and fell in love, that she became interested in anything more than that.