Top Ten Favorite Characters in Children’s Books

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for my Top Ten Favorite Characters in any Genre. I am going to go with Children’s books because it’s a genre I rarely talk about here.

1) Tock the “watchdog” in The Phantom Tollbooth – He’s such a loyal companion for Milo.

2) Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia – He’s always there for the other characters and he’s willing to lay down his own life to save them.

3) Charlotte in Charlotte’s Web – Wise and kind, she’s the best sort of friend.

4) Matilda (Roald Dahl) – All she wants to do is read. I loved her as a kid.

5) Califer in Howl’s Moving Castle – This cranky fire demon was one of my favorite parts of the book.

6) Jack Pumpkinhead in the Wizard of Oz series – He’s such a strange character, but a fun one.

7) Turtle in The Westing Game – I read this for the first time when I was about Turtle’s age and I just loved her character.  

8) Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle in the series named after her – She teaches kids great lessons, but she never makes them feel bad about themselves.

9) Meg in A Wrinkle in Time – She thinks that she isn’t as good as those around her and it takes her awhile to realize what a powerful force love is.

10) Charlotte in The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle – She’s a prim and proper young lady until she takes a trans-Atlantic ship to move to America. Then she becomes a sailor and must fight to survive. It was one of my favorite adventure stories when I was young.

Bonus: Most of the cast, especially Dumbledore, from the Harry Potter series. I don't consider that a Children's series, which is why I left it off.

Image from here. 

Top Ten Books I Wish I Read as a Kid

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish is a freebie so I picked an old topic, Books I wish I read as a kid. Every book on my list is one I enjoyed as an adult, but I know I would have absolutely adored it if I’d read it when I was young.

1) Half Magic series by Edward Eager

2) Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

3) The Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke

4) A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

5) The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

6) The Arthurian Saga by Mary Stewart

7) The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper

8) The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

9) The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

10) Peter and the Star Catchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Photo of me as a kid (check out that sweet carpet!)

Top Ten Series I Haven't Finished

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Series I Haven't Finished (because either you didn't like them, you just have procrastinated, etc.) The top 5 are ones I don’t plan on finishing because for one reason or another the series didn’t hook me enough to want to continue. The last 5 are series that I definitely plan on finishing, I just haven’t gotten to all of the books yet.

Series I Won’t Finish:
1) The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

2) Gregory Maguire’s Wicked Years series

3) Outlander

4) The Maze Runner

5) The Left Behind series

Series I Plan on Finishing:
6) Howl’s Moving Castle series

7) Stephen Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle

8) Mary Stewart’s Merlin Series

9) The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series

10) Sue Grafton’s Alphabet Mystery Series
 
I’ve made a big effort to finish quite a few series in the past year for this challenge, including the Lemony Snicket series, Anne of Green Gables series, C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy, The Dark is Rising series and the Wolves of Mercy Falls series.

Image from here.

Howl's Moving Castle

Howl’s Moving Castle
by Diana Wynne Jones
★★★★

This book has been on my TBR list for quite awhile and Jones’ recent passing made it especially timely for the Dewey read-a-thon last month. Now that I’ve read it, I know I’ll be checking out more of her work.

The eldest of three daughters, 17-year-old Sophie is transformed into an old woman after accidently offending a witch. After that she heads off to find the infamous wizard Howl, who despite his dangerous reputation, may be able to help her.

I love that Sophie never whines and feels sorry for herself; instead she just starts working toward a solution. She’s clever and determined and not easily swayed by a pretty face. I loved her antagonistic relationship with Howl. He needed someone in his life that didn’t blinded follow his orders and Sophie could hold her own against him. My favorite character is the cranky fire demon, Calcifer. His acidic comments were wonderful.

The writing reminded me of Neil Gaiman’s style, which is a great thing. It has that wonderful blend of fairy tale and dark sense of humor. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it quite as much if it had ended differently, but I really loved how the story was resolved. Jones could have offered a very simple conclusion, but she found one that gave additional depth to her characters and deepened the reader’s love of them.