Ten top orphans in children's literature

Katherine Rundell grew up in Africa and Europe and was elected a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. She begins each day with a cartwheel and believes that reading is almost exactly the same as cartwheeling: It turns the world upside down and leaves you breathless. She is the author of Girl Savage and Rooftoppers.

At the Guardian, Rundell named her top ten orphans in children's literature. One entry on the list:

Alex Rider, Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

Alex's orphan status means that there is nobody to tell him to be home for supper, to hold on tight or wash his face. Stories in which children take on traditionally adult jobs require dead or absent parents, and as a child spy, like Kim in Rudyard Kipling's novel 100 years before, Alex needs to be free of worrying mothers and fathers.

Read about another orphan on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue