Thursday, September 10, 2015

Ten top schoolchildren in fiction

Janet Davey’s latest novel is Another Mother’s Children. One of her top ten schoolchildren in fiction, as shared at the Guardian:
Piggy in Lord of the Flies by William Golding

“I don’t care what they call me, so long as they don’t call me what they used to call me in school.” Once confided, the dreaded name sticks all over again. Piggy: the fat, asthmatic boy with the glasses. Having been bullied all his life, he sees no glamour in being marooned on an island with a crowd of schoolboys, sole survivors of an air attack. “Nobody knows we’re here. Your dad don’t know, nobody don’t know,” he tells Ralph, the handsome leader-type whom he shrewdly latches on to. As the boys turn malevolent in the endless, unsupervised playtime, Piggy keeps a grip on reality that is far beyond his 12 years. His tragedy is that understanding can’t save him.
Read about another entry on the list.

Lord of the Flies is on Frank Rich's ten top books list, Non Pratt's top ten list of toxic friendships in literature, Francesca Haig's top ten list of the greatest twins in children’s books, Shaun Byron Fitzpatrick list of thirteen favorite, occasionally-banned, YA novels, Matt Kraus's list of six famous books with extremely faithful film adaptations, Michael Hogan's list of the ten best fictional evil children, Danny Wallace's six best books list, Gemma Malley's top ten list of dystopian novels for teenagers, AbeBooks' list of 20 books of shattered childhoods and is one of the top ten works of literature according to Stephen King. It appears on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best pigs in literature, ten of the best pairs of glasses in literature, and ten of the best horrid children in literature, Katharine Quarmby's top ten list of disability stories, and William Skidelsky's list of ten of the best accounts of being marooned in literature. It is a book that made a difference to Isla Fisher and is one of Suzi Quatro's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue