Friday, August 13, 2010

Clever Folks

In my next life, I want to be witty and clever, like Lisa Yee. She recently posted the most intriguing question on her Facebook page:
what best friend from kid lit would you have wanted to be your best friend when you were a kid?

I answered that I would want to have been friends with Caddie Woodlawn, and Susan of Susan and Arabella, Pioneers. But after more thought, I would add Encyclopedia Brown, Laura (of the Little House on the Prairie books), Pippi Longstocking, Cam Jansen, Fern (Charlotte's Web), Dickon (The Secret Garden), and Little Orphant Annie (from the James Whitcomb Riley poem)-- because what would happen if the goblins got you?--and any of the characters in Eleanor Cameron's Mushroom Planet books.

How would you answer Lisa's fun question?

7 comments:

  1. The girls from the Baby-Sitters' Club WERE my best friends for the five years I read that series. My real-life best friend and I devoured them, and could probably still tell you more about their lives than about the lives of our other friends.

    Anne Shirley, Ramona Quimby, Molly McIntyre (American Girl from WWII), and Catherine/Birdy round out my list.

    (My husband would second your Mushroom Planet kids.)

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  2. These are the ones I can think of off the top of my head:
    -Anne from Anne of Green Gables
    -Vicky Austin from A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels
    -Pippi Longstocking

    Because I can't just stop at kid lit, I have to say I'd pick Lotty from The Enchanted April to be my grown-up friend.

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  3. Anne Shirley, Laura Ingalls, Anne Frank (not fictional, but beloved), and Jo March come to mind!

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  4. OK, I'm afraid my best friend would be Black Beauty, I was sooo horse crazy at 10 years old that I saved horse tail hairs, one at a time, old horse shoes and horse pictures from magazines. I even cut out the little Pegasus from the Reader's Digest covers. My copy of "Black Beauty" was read and reread until the pages got soft (you obsessed readers out there know what I mean).
    I used to sit in a neighbor's pasture and draw the horses while they tried to nibble on my braids (which did look and feel like straw).
    Of course "Flicka" was a close second followed by "Flame" in the "Black Stallion" series. I also wanted "Hi,Ho, Silver"in "The Lone Ranger" TV/Radio show and "Trigger" from "Roy Rodgers" TV show but alas, they don't count as kid lit.
    I guess that would give me a herd of 'best friends'. I like this question Kirby, it reminded me of all the books I treasured as a kid – some of them without horses!

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  5. Oh, Oh, Oh.... I forgot to add Merrylegs and Ginger from "Black Beauty"and so my "best friends" herd grows....

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  6. I definitely want Anne Shirley and Trixie Belden as my best friends!

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