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[CCBC-Net] Character Driven
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From: Monica Edinger <monicaedinger>
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:02:05 -0400
What a lovely question. As a child I wanted to BE Alice and get to play in Wonderland and Looking-Glass Land. I know, I know --- not what most think of as a character-driven novel, but I envied her her adventures and wanted to have them too. I read her stories over and over and over.
But the character that comes to mind immediately now is Philip Pullman's Lyra Belacqua. I've read His Dark Materials several times, listened to it more than once, saw the stage play and movie, and I never tired of Lyra. There's much to dislike about the movie, but other than her being a tad too tidy, I thought the actress who played Lyra did a terrific job. And I can never see Anna Maxwell-Martin without thinking of her as Lyra (and she's done all sorts of stuff since then, say Esther Summerson in the BBC production of Bleak House). Lyra is just such a grand child --- brave, shrew, smart, and far less ordinary than Pullman keeps insisting she is. One of the great characters in literature, any sort of literature, in my opinion.
Monica
On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 11:24 AM, Megan Schliesman < schliesman at education.wisc.edu> wrote:
> I'ts time to start our discussion for the second part of June:
> *
> * Character-Driven: Favorite Characters in Children's and Young Adult
> Literature.
>
> You know who they are. The characters that stand out because of, or
> sometimes in spite of, the story of which they are a part. Characters
> that live on in your imagination long after the story ends. Do you have
> old friends from childhood whom you met in the pages of a book? Who are
> the welcome new acquaintances in your life?
>
>
> Megan
>
>
> --
> Megan Schliesman, Librarian
> Cooperative Children's Book Center
> School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison
> 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290
> Madison, WI 53706
>
> 608/262-9503
> schliesman at education.wisc.edu
>
> www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
>
> _______________________________________________
> CCBC-Net mailing list
> CCBC-Net at lists.education.wisc.edu
> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> http://lists.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
>
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:02:05 -0400
What a lovely question. As a child I wanted to BE Alice and get to play in Wonderland and Looking-Glass Land. I know, I know --- not what most think of as a character-driven novel, but I envied her her adventures and wanted to have them too. I read her stories over and over and over.
But the character that comes to mind immediately now is Philip Pullman's Lyra Belacqua. I've read His Dark Materials several times, listened to it more than once, saw the stage play and movie, and I never tired of Lyra. There's much to dislike about the movie, but other than her being a tad too tidy, I thought the actress who played Lyra did a terrific job. And I can never see Anna Maxwell-Martin without thinking of her as Lyra (and she's done all sorts of stuff since then, say Esther Summerson in the BBC production of Bleak House). Lyra is just such a grand child --- brave, shrew, smart, and far less ordinary than Pullman keeps insisting she is. One of the great characters in literature, any sort of literature, in my opinion.
Monica
On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 11:24 AM, Megan Schliesman < schliesman at education.wisc.edu> wrote:
> I'ts time to start our discussion for the second part of June:
> *
> * Character-Driven: Favorite Characters in Children's and Young Adult
> Literature.
>
> You know who they are. The characters that stand out because of, or
> sometimes in spite of, the story of which they are a part. Characters
> that live on in your imagination long after the story ends. Do you have
> old friends from childhood whom you met in the pages of a book? Who are
> the welcome new acquaintances in your life?
>
>
> Megan
>
>
> --
> Megan Schliesman, Librarian
> Cooperative Children's Book Center
> School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison
> 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290
> Madison, WI 53706
>
> 608/262-9503
> schliesman at education.wisc.edu
>
> www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
>
> _______________________________________________
> CCBC-Net mailing list
> CCBC-Net at lists.education.wisc.edu
> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> http://lists.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
>
-- Monica Edinger monicaedinger at gmail.com http://medinger.wordpress.com http://twitter.com/medingerReceived on Wed 17 Jun 2009 02:02:05 PM CDT
