[30 days of books] the freak

[ironymaiden]

1. A fictional character you identify with and why

my strong associations here are all from my tween and teen years, and they're all about the girl who doesn't fit in and then finds a place where she belongs. (it's interesting to me that i don't have a character that i identify with "now". i don't read books that feature happily married ladies in their thirties...or maybe i'm too inflexible now to identify with someone who isn't closer to my age/gender presentation, etc.)

i had turned down an offer to skip 5th grade. it was in the fall of my 6th grade year that i found myself taking reading class all alone and slowly realizing that i might have made a mistake. i read Dragonsong that fall, and there was Menolly.

• youngest child


• father: well-respected, taciturn


• mother: trying to enforce social norms "for her own good"


• older sister: little in common


• older brother: good relationship, but busy having a life


• tall and tomboyish


• talented


• living in a rural community where she doesn't fit in and her talent has low value


• being herself in spite of the consequences


the magic of the story wasn't that she found a bunch of fire lizards, but that she discovered that the rest of the world was not like the place she was born. at the time i had no confirmation that was true, but i started to dream.

30 questions