“This book taught me, once and for all, how easily you can escape this world with the help of words! You can find friends between the pages of a book, wonderful friends.” ―Cornelia Funke, Inkspell

It’s true, isn’t it? says I, Kimber the Magnificent. Mom says we’ve met some of our best friends through a book or books. (I personally think a double cheeseburger would help. But who’s counting?)

Anyway, we recently met Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Jana hosts a Top Ten Tuesday thingy every week. You know. Like where she posts a topic and then a bunch of bloggers weigh in. This week we’re talking Characters I’d Love An Update On.

So Mom and I? We put head and paws together to come up with our list of Characters We’d Love An Update On Now That The Book is Over. Several of their book stories have been made into movies. How many do you recognize? (The jury’s still out on that cheeseburger. But it never hurts to ask, right?)

11-ish Characters We’d Love An Update On (in no particular order):

 

1. Peter Pan

By J. M. Barries

“All children, expect one, grow up.”

Where is Peter now? What adventures is he pursuing? What about the croc and the clock?

2. Old Yeller

By Fred Gipson

We’ll let you guess who nominated this one. Does Travis Coates get another dog before the whole world runs out of tissue?

3. The Hunger Games

By Suzanne Collins

“May the odds be ever in your favor.”

What’s the latest with curly, surly Haymitch Abernathy, temperamental and eternally sloshed mentor with a heart of gold? And what about true rebel, visionary, and fiercely loyal Gale Hawthorne?

4. The Wizard of Oz

By L. Frank Baum

One of us is kinda wondering if the “Wizard” ever made it back to Wichita in that hot air balloon thing-a—ma-jig? If he did, what is he up to now? The other wants to know what’s new with Dorothy Gale and “Toto, too.”

5. The Bridges of Madison County

By Robert Waller

Kimber: One of us decided to add this. Insert eye roll here. But Her Momness says she wants to know what happened to Francesca’s kids after her ashes were joined with Robert Kincaid’s at the Roseman Bridge in this three-hankie romance  novella. (Sorry about that spoiler. Oops!)

8. A River Runs Through It

By Norman Maclean

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.”

 

The most memorable “character” in this beautiful written, Pulitzer Prize-nominated coming of age classic? The Big Blackfoot River in Missoula, Montana. It’s where Norman and his kid bro Paul fly-fished along with their father. Is the river still the same? Has it changed? How?

7. Lonesome Dove

By Larry McMurty

Whatever happened to retired Texas Ranger Woodrow F. Call? Last we “heard,” Call has just buried his friend Augustus “Gus” McCrae near Lonesome Dove, Texas. Call planned to return to his ranch in Big Sky Country in this Pulitzer Prize winner, a classic of the American West about two aging Texas Rangers embarking on one last adventure. ….

8. Bleak House

By Charles Dickens

 

This prodigious tome deals with young people’s initiation into the adult world. It is also a romance and a murder mystery as well as a withering social criticism of the English Court of Chancery and the legal profession. Altogether now: Jarndyce v. Jarndyce.

One of us would love an update on Esther Summerson. She’s the narrator and protagonist of this prodigious Dickens tome.

9. The Island of the Blue Dolphins

By Scott O’Dell

One of us insists that Karana is the protagonist in this classic historical fiction. (Hi, Mom.) But c’mon. If you read this Newbery Medal winner closely, you know that the hero(es) are really the noble Rontu and his son, Rontu-Aru. Where is the latter now?

10. Doctor Zhivago

By Boris Pasternak

Dr. Zhivago’s wife, Tonya? Hello?

 

11. Mary Poppins

By P.L. Travers

Between jumping in and out of chalk sidewalk paintings, carousel horse races and tea parties on the ceiling, we gotta ask: what’s up with Bert the Chimney Sweep?

Comments Welcome

What character’s “update” have you been dying to get? C’mon. Don’t be shy. It’s just us, okay?

You gonna eat that?