Final Six Favorite Literary Characters

When I originally started making a list of my favorite characters in literature, I just wrote any that I could think of, with the intention of narrowing it down.  Well after I had my list, I couldn't bring myself to take any of them off the list.  So instead I categorized.  Two weeks ago I presented you with six of my Favorite Literary Characters from My Childhood and last week I presented Six More Favorite Literary Characters, which focused on children's and middle grade books read in my adulthood.

This week I have six more favorite literary characters from YA and adult books.  There weren't as many from adult books as I would have thought--and then remembered that I don't read a lot of adult books.  So yeah... :)

Be warned, there is quite a mix of characters here.

Kirsten from Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 
It's been months, but I still sometimes stop and think about Kirsten.  I wonder if I could have been like her in a world that suddenly died--I'm not quite sure I would have made it.  Who knows.  Maybe I would step up?
Review: Station Eleven

Cress and Thorne from the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
So Cress I love because she came into the Lunar Chronicles with a bit more innocence than the other characters.  I feel like I should have been annoyed by her and her naivete, but I'm not.  And Thorne.  I liked him almost from the moment I first met him.  Okay so not at all in the prison during Cinder, but after that, I pretty much liked him.  And I fell in love with him during Cress.  He reminds me of Malcom Reynolds from Firefly.  In my mind, I picture Nathan Fillion, in his Malcom gear when Thorne walks onto the page.
Review: Winter
Review: Cinder
Review: Fairest

R from Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
I like reading zombie stuff okay.  I love the TV show The Walking Dead (never read the graphic novels).  I was so taken with the idea that a zombie could have a consciousness and could be rehabilitated.

Ava from AVA by Carole Maso
In college we read AVA and I fell in love with a book in a way that I never fell in love with a book before and probably never will again.  The way Maso wove those images together of a woman dying and the heaviness and lightness of it.  The beauty of it.  It moved me to dance, to create, and I found myself spending two years on this book, studying it, choreographing, performing, re-choreographing it until it all came together to me.  Never again will I love a book like this.  Gingko trees, hands, rolling over, "end the story here."  All ideas I will remember and this fictional image of a woman during her last days alive.

Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I am pretending to only know the Atticus Finch I met in TKAM.  I cannot speak anymore about the Atticus I met in Go Set A Watchman.  If you'd like to hear what I thought about that, check out my "not-really-a-review" review.  The Atticus from TKAM embodied the spirit of parenting that I wanted to be..for the most part.  He inspired me as a teacher, because that's how I saw him in TKAM.
Review: To Kill a Mockingbird
Thoughts On Go Set a Watchman

Jo Montfort from These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly
This is a newer read from just this past fall, but I loved Jo!  Raised in one of the most well-known and prestigious families of New York, Jo is expected to marry the most eliglbe bachelor.  Then she will have babies and host parties and maybe even get to write an advice column under a pen name is her husband will allow it.  But Jo is a fan of Nellie Bly and wants to be a journalist--a real journalist.  She has accepted that this will never happen, but when her father unexpectedly dies from an apparent accident, Jo isn't so sure and the only person who will listen to her is a young up and coming reporter looking for a story.  I love how although Jo is terrified of both the physical dangers and the social dangers of what she is doing, she still does it.  She makes that choice.  Jo also knows that soon this life will have to end and she'll go back to being the perfect girl and future-wife they all want her to be.
Review: These Shallow Graves
Character Spotlight: Jo Montfort

Do you like any of these characters?  Do you have others you want to add?  

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Six More Favorite Literary Characters

When I originally started making a list of my favorite characters in literature, I just wrote any that I could think of, with the intention of narrowing it down.  Well after I had my list, I couldn't bring myself to take any of them off the list.  So instead I categorized.  Last week I presented you with six of my Favorite Literary Characters from My Childhood.

This week I have some of my favorite literary characters from children's and middle grade books that I read in my adulthood.  As a mother, I'm hoping that I can get my daughter (now 2.5, but I can plan her reading life for her--right?) into many of these characters as she grows up.  How early is too early to start reading HP to her?  

Moose from the Al Capone at Alcatraz series by Gennifer Choldonko.
Moose is in no way perfect.  All he wants to do is play ball, but he has to watch his sister Natalie most of the time.  Although Natalie does annoy Moose at times, he's kind to her and sticks up for her when others try to take advantage of her mental state.  He's a good kid, but has a lot to learn.
Review: Al Capone Shines My Shoes

Meggie from Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.
Meggie loves books.  She loves stories.  Enough said.  Oh yes, her name is Meggie.

Heidi from So B. It by Sarah Weeks
She is courageous and sets out on a trek to find out more information about her mother.  She discovers a lot about herself and what family means.

Rose from Rain/Reign by Ann M. Martin
Rose's story is sad and beautiful.  I desperately wanted to befriend her and take her under my wing.  I read this one to my students this year and they also fell in love with her.
Review: Rain/Reign

Mo LeBeau from Three Times Lucky and Ghosts of Tupelo Landing by Sheila Turnage
Dramatic and over the top and always in the know, Mo is hilarious.  She's in no way perfect and makes many mistakes, but for the most part she owns up to her mistakes.  She also loves her family and friends with a fierce loyalty.
Review: Three Times Lucky
Review: Ghosts of Tupelo Landing

  

Harry, Hermione, and Dumbledore from The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
I realize that this should count as three separate characters, but I'm putting them all together anyway. Harry is awkward and finds his place at Hogwarts--and it has nothing to do with being The Boy Who Lived.  He finds a place with the family he creates.
Hermione's character always seemed like a mother figure to Harry, but not the doting kind.  She says what needs to be said and she is loyal to him throughout it all, no matter what.  It is her friendship that makes the trio of Ron, Hermione and Harry work.
Dumbledore.  What can I say about him?  Sometimes infuriating in his enigmatic ways, but as a reader you end up looking up to him, depending on him just as Harry does.  He shows up at just the right time to save everyone and keep them all safe and works behind the scenes to make sure everything turns out okay.

What middle grade and children's characters reached out to you as an adult?

Check back again next week for the last of my Favorite Literary Characters!

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