If you’re a regular reader of this column, it’s highly likely that you, or someone you know, feels a deep love for books and reading. So, on this day on which the world celebrates love, let’s hang out with fellow book-lovers from the fictional world of children’s books!
Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series by J K Rowling: I wouldn’t even attempt this list without Hermione’s name. The quintessential book-lover, she also happens to be one of my favourite fictional characters. Hermione’s love for books also happens to be essential to the story — her obsession with reading and knowledge has ended up saving lives many times over.
Matilda from Matilda by Roald Dahl: The title character from one of Dahl’s most-loved books, Matilda loves books so much that she’s read every single children’s book in the library and has made excellent headway into adult books too! Her family doesn’t recognise her intelligence, and thinks her book-reading is useless (and asks her to watch television instead!)
Bala from Bookasura: The Adventures of the Book-eating Monster by Arundhati Venkatesh, illustrated by Priya Kuriyan: Book-loving Bala tries to escape from his book-chewing sister, but ends up having to deal with a book-eating monster called Bookasura instead, in this lovely, funny story that is full of books and yummy food.
Yasmin from Book Uncle and Me by Uma Krishnaswami, illustrated by Priya Kuriyan: Yasmin reads a book a day, borrowing from Book-Uncle’s library around the corner. But Book Uncle has to pack up and close his library! What will Yasmin do without her supply of books? Can she save the library?
Klaus Baudelaire from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket: He loves nothing more than to read, and has already read more books in his young life than most people will do in a lifetime. He believes that if you read enough books, you can solve any problem. He also happens to remember almost everything he reads, and this helps him and his fellow unfortunate siblings get out of the increasingly unfortunate (and hilarious) events they find themselves embroiled in.
Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables series, and Emily Starr from Emily of New Moon series, both by L M Montgomery: Beautiful settings, and book-loving, spirited, thoughtful girls — can’t help loving these characters. Anne is the more well-known of the two, but the author has based Emily on herself.
Jo March from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: Jo is semi-autobiographical. Spirited and opinionated, Jo loves to sit curled up in the attic and read. She writes, and wants to get published.
Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: The book-loving and book-thieving Liesel steals her first book before she can even read — and then goes on to steal her second book from a burning pile during a Nazi book-burning ceremony, in this popular novel set during WW2.
May your love for books always grow!
The author has written 10 books for children and can be reached at www.shruthi-rao.com
GobbledyBook is a fortnightly column that gives a peek into the wondrous world of children’s books. Hop on! Or as Alice did, plunge into the rabbit hole.