Happy Top Ten Tuesday!

Today’s topic is Books With Character Names in the Titles. This is harder than it sounds. But once we sat down and put on our thinking caps, we came up with 20+. That we’ve actually read. Could’ve included more, but this is for starters. How many have you read?

22 Books With Character Names in the Titles (in no particular order):

1. Tuck Everlasting – Natalie Babbitt

Is eternal life a blessing or a curse? That’s what young Winnie Foster must decide when she discovers a spring on her family’s property whose waters grant immortality. Members of the Tuck family, having drunk from the spring, tell Winnie of their experiences watching life go by and never growing older.

But then Winnie must decide whether or not to keep the Tucks’ secret―and whether or not to join them on their never-ending journey.

2. Gabby: The Little Dog That Had to Learn to Bark – Barby Keel

Gabby has spent all eight years of her life indoors. She has no idea how to play, chew a treat, or interact with other animals. She’s never dug in the dirt or rolled happily in the grass. Strangest of all, Gabby does not know how to bark. In short, Gabby doesn’t know how to be a dog.

Barby can tell that the little golden-haired dog is bright and curious beneath her paralyzing fear, but coaxing out Gabby’s true spirit will be a daunting task. Along the way, both human and canine find much more in each other…

Review forthcoming.

3. Black Beauty – Anna Sewell

A jet-black young colt, Black Beauty, spends his early years in a cozy meadow growing up with a gentle master, a strong mother and an ideal upbringing. Through the years, he changes hands with different masters. Some rough. Some kind. Some total jerks. Black Beauty’s experiences provide life lessons on real friendship, loss, hardship, and human nature.

4. Because of Winn-Dixie – Kate DiCamillo

When ten-year-old India Opal Buloni goes down to the local supermarket for groceries, she comes home with a dog. But Winn-Dixie is no ordinary dog. It’s because of Winn-Dixie that Opal begins to make friends. And it’s because of Winn-Dixie that she finally dares to ask her father about her mother, who left when Opal was three. In fact, just about everything that happens that summer is because of Winn-Dixie. 

5. The Diary of Anne Frank  – Anne Frank

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. 

6. Julie of the Wolves – Jean Craighead George

When Miyax walks out onto the frozen Alaskan tundra, she hopes she is leaving problems at home far behind. Raised in the ancient Eskimo ways, Miyax knows how to take care of herself. But as bitter Arctic winds efface the surface of food, she begins to fear for her life and turns to a pack of wild wolves for help.

Amaroq, the pack leader, eventually accepts Miyax as one of his own, protecting and providing for her. But as Miyax nears civilization, her life with the wolves and all she has come to learn about herself are challenged as never before.

7. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The first published novel from the Nobel Prize winning Russian author of The Gulag Archipelago.

In the madness of WWII, a dutiful Russian soldier is wrongfully convicted of treason and sentenced to ten years in a Siberian labor camp. So begins this masterpiece of modern Russian fiction, a harrowing account of a man who has conceded to all things evil with dignity and strength.

8. Mary Poppins – P.L. Travers

From the moment Mary Poppins arrives at Number Seventeen Cherry-Tree Lane, everyday life at the Banks house is forever changed. Mary becomes a most unusual nanny to Jane and Michael. And who else but Mary Poppins can slide up banisters, host tea parties on the ceiling, or pop in and out of chalk sidewalk drawings?

9. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

Willy Wonka’s famous chocolate factory is opening at last! But only five lucky children will be allowed inside. Charlie Bucket, a boy who is honest and kind, brave and true, is among them. And he’s ready for the wildest time of his life!

10. A River Runs Through It – Norman Maclean

Set in the early 20^th century in Missoula, MT, this classic coming-of-age tale about two brothers just wouldn’t be the same without its central “character”: The Big Blackfoot River.

11. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum

Don’t make me explain this.

12. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

Often considered one of the best Russian novels ever written, Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and thereby exposes herself to the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of 19th century Russia.

13. My Antonia – Willa Cather

Widely recognized as Willa Cather’s finest book and one of the outstanding novels of American literature, My Antonia details of the life of early American pioneers in Nebraska.

14. Cinder – Marissa Meyer

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl, a gifted mechanic, Cinder, who’s also a cyborg.

15. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D’Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her ‘cousin’ Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future.

16. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

An orphan and an outcast her whole life, Jane Eyre’s courage is tested when she is hired as a governess at Thornfield Hall, the home of the brooding Edward Rochester. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard. But Mr. Rochester has a terrible secret…

17. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

The story of a young man’s adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Dickens’s autobiographical novel.

18. Silas Marner – George Eliot

Silas Marner, a weaver, is a good man. But he’s mistaken for a thief who stole donations at his church. He moves to the city and begins his new life weaving and saving gold, which is then stolen. All seems lost and lonely until a forlorn child comes into his life…

19. The Runaway Bunny – Margaret Wise Brown

A little bunny keeps running away from his mother in this imaginary game of hide-and-seek. Children will be profoundly comforted by this lovingly steadfast mother who finds her child every time. First published in 1942 and never out of print.

20. The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo

The classic, tragic story of Quasimodo, bell ringer of Notre Dame, who falls in love with the Gypsy girl, Esmeralda.

21. Heidi – Johanna Spyri

This novel is about the events in the life of a 5-year-old girl in her paternal grandfather’s care in the Swiss Alps. It was written as a book “for children and those who love children.” Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.

22. Peter Pan – by J.M. Barrie

“All children, except one, grow up…”

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What would you add?

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