1. Bryce Loski from Flipped – He’s a selfish paranoid jerk with nothing to redeem him but his bright blue eyes and good looks. Then he starts looking at Juli and the rest of his life in a different way, and becomes a better person for it, because he realizes what is truly important. Besides, he’s just plain funny.
2. Ramona Quimby – To be perfectly frank, I WAS Ramona when I was little. I knew so many of her pains and frustrations as a kid, what was important, what was scary, who was irritating, and who was the most wonderful person in the world. Her perspective was fascinating, and she had all these crazy adventures that were so similar to mine. We were the same person, I swear.
3. Anastasia Krupnik – Another character that was remarkably similar to me. She made me laugh a lot, what with her thought process (“Shirley Temple would dance and twirl around, sometimes showing her underpants, talk about gross”), and her tendency to go into elaborate daydreams. I was amused by all her antics in the books, like her endeavors to write a murder mystery novel, or her experimentation with raising gerbils.
4. Jonas from The Giver – Can you imagine being the only enlightened person in an imperfect world, and being completely unable to do anything about it? Jonas is truly alone as he takes on the task of being the Receiver of Memory in his community, and you feel for him when he experiences joy for the first time, as well as pain. Sheer pain. Awful pain. Hideous pain. All you want for him is to stop feeling it, but because of it, he is able to learn so much and grow and find the courage to do something about it.
5. Reuven and Danny from The Chosen – their friendship inspires me. Honestly, they go for long periods of time of being unable to speak to each other, and yet they still have such a tight bond.
6. Ani from The Goose Girl – “Right now I’d like all my troubles to stand in front of me in a straight line, and one by one I’d give each a black eye.” Shannon Hale has a talent for making her characters suffer, but through their suffering they become better people, and Ani is no exception. As a princess betrayed by her lady-in-waiting and forced to become the palace goose girl in a disguise, Ani deals with many new troubles and her own weaknesses. However, because of these frustrations she goes through, she becomes a strong character who thinks for herself and gains many friends who support her.
7. Death from the Discworld novels – The fact that he speaks in small caps is the first thing that drew me to him: I HAVE COME FOR THEE. His voice echoes in everyone’s head throughout the book makes me laugh. And then in one of the books, Mort, the one where Death gets a life? Priceless. He’s such a funny character.
8. Jane Eyre – talented and smart, one wouldn’t know whether to like her or not, but her endearing trait is her plainness. She is no beauty, and that particular feature gives her something to get past, and that makes her even more likable and interesting.
9. Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter novels. He’s funny, he’s the sidekick, but he’s got so much depth to him. He’s frustrated with being “the Chosen One’s” best friend, and yet he’s still the most loyal friend to Harry. He loves his family but hates the lack of attention, and I can understand that, coming from a big family myself. Like me, he’s lazy and finds great joy in procrastination, but he’s still a great guy. Love Ron. Love him.
10. Calvin and Hobbes – Okay, so maybe to some people comics aren’t considered literature. But I learned how to read because of Calvin and Hobbes. I wanted to go on the same adventures as they had, like going to the Yukon, or into outer space, or back in time to see dinosaurs. And their friendship made me cry. No, seriously. I still remember the way I gazed at illustrations of them hugging or interacting, because it was so beautiful. The art was fine, but that’s not what mattered. What mattered was that they were the best friends you could ever find, and when I watched them go sledding into the forest, I loved and hated it because I wanted more, but I liked watching them doing what they loved most: exploring. But those characters are so fascinating and their friendship is inspiring. Just look at this comic strip here. It makes you melt.
