Do you carry
Your characters with you,
As you
Carry on?

Do you keep
them in your pocket
or hold them
in your heart?

I do.

They are there
To relate to.
To learn more about.
To understand.
To be understood.
To make life,
Make sense.

I carry my characters with me.
I hold them in
My heart.
They are my friends
And I carry them
With me.

Your favorite books, the ones that sit in a place of honor on your bookshelf, are the books that you have read more than a million times because something about them feels right– they feel like home. They feel like home because of the setting. They feel like home simply because they have been read and re-read more times than you can count. But sometimes, they feel like home because of the characters. We can turn to these books and know that when we immerse ourselves in their pages that we will be with old friends.

Often the characters we love the most have been with us the longest. They come from the books we loved as children. Sara Crewe from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess, Winnie Foster in Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting, Hattie Owen from Ann M. Martin’s A Corner of the Universe, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March form Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, the daughters and families of Heather Vogel Frederick’s The Mother-Daughter Book Club series, any of the girls in the American Girl series, and- of course- Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger (and every other character in those books) from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series are all examples of beloved characters and the list could go on. We love them as children but as we grow older we can understand them in new ways as we experience life.

As you go about your life do you ever find yourself thinking, “Oh, so this is how that character felt when…” or “this person reminds me of a certain character in that book
or maybe even “I wish I could be more like this character?”” I do. One of the best parts about reading is that as we read, we gain something that can never be lost. C. S. Lewis said that “We read to know we are not alone.” How true this is! In books we see characters with stories, with problems, with feelings, that are just like ours. We realize that we can relate to them, and the loneliness is lost in realization that someone else, fictional or not, understands. Am I alone in admiring Sara Crewe’s bravery, determination, or heart? Am I alone in admiring Jo March’s will to better herself or her individuality? Am I alone in admiring Harry Potter’s courage, loyalty, and love? I don’t think so. These traits are something that everyone admires and are one reason we love these character so much– we hope to be like them.

These characters, or friends, teach us lessons about life and help us understand the world. They can always be relied upon to be there to return to, whether you are upset or simply miss them. As J.K. Rowling said, “The stories we love best do live in us forever so whether you can come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”

I believe that characters too, will also always welcome us home because they never truly leave us.

-Stephanie R., 11th grade