Top 10 Heroes from Children’s Literature

Who do you think is the best Kids’ Book Hero? Vote for your favourite children’s book as Better Reading compiles a list of Australia’s Top 50 Kids’ Books, and you could WIN the entire final list!

For World Book Day, National Book Tokens asked 7,000 people in the UK and Ireland about their favourite heroes (and villains) from children’s literature and the results are in! Read about the Top 10 Villains, learn what voters picked as ‘future classics’,  and head over to the National Book Tokens website for more information.

Hands up who guessed Harry Potter at #1? Yup, everyone. The bright and brainy Hermione Granger is at Number #3, but sadly Ron Weasley does not make the list.

Another book loving heroine is in at #2 – Matilda Wormwood from Roald Dahl’s Matilda. Thanks in part to the recent award winning musical, readers are rediscovering the wonders of this very special little girl.

There are more heroes who are small in size but large in heart – such as Bilbo Baggins from J.R.R. Tolkein’s fantasy classic The Hobbit, on the list at #4. The adventures of Bilbo and his friends have been loved by generations all over the world. Perhaps even in darkest Peru, where #10 on the list, one Paddington Bear, was originally from. There are twenty books by Michael Bond about the marmalade loving little bear and his adopted family, the Browns.

Paddington isn’t the only beloved bear – who can forget Winnie-the-Pooh? A.A. Milne’s characters are as sweet and silly as when he dreamt them up for his son Christopher Robin in the 1920’s, and Winne-the-Pooh was voted the #8th favourite hero.

Rounding out the list are more memorable heroines. Katniss Everdeen, the skilled archer from District 11 in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series punches her way into #7, and Lyra Belaqua, of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, comes in at #5. Jo March, the second eldest of the March sisters in Lousia May Allcott’s Little Women is at #6 and the eternally optimistic Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery makes it to #9.

Who gets your vote for favourite kids book hero or heroine? Let us know in the comments and be sure to cast your vote in Australia’s Top 50 Kids’ Books!

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