Where are your favourite children’s characters 30 years on?
In October 1988, the world was first introduced to one of the most famous fictional bookworms of all time: Roald Dahl’s super smart telekinetic Matilda, who used her powers to right the wrongs committed by adults.
In celebration of this special anniversary, Quentin Blake, Dahl’s longtime illustrator, has redesigned the covers of Matilda, imagining what she would be doing now. We at TNS thought this was a great idea, so to celebrate, we’re going to share what we think our favourite children’s book characters would be doing as adults. We haven’t included Harry Potter, as characters’ lives as adults are involved in the literary canon.
- The Baudelaire Orphans-A Series of Unfortunate Events-Lemony Snicket
Hopefully, Violet, Klaus and Sunny manage to make it to adulthood and misery finally stopped following them around. Violet would finally get the Baudelaire fortune, and split it amongst her siblings. They wouldn’t need the money, but they would still want things to do: Violet would become a famous inventor, Klaus would become a researcher and spend his days reading and Sunny would become a chef and make fabulous meals for everyone. They would all still be together, raising their adoptive daughter Kit.
2. Fern-Charlotte’s Web-EB White
I imagine that as a grown up, Fern would probably end up running her parents’ farm as she would want a job where she was around animals all the time, and even as an adult, she would still enjoy her quality time talking to the animals.
3. Jo, Fanny and Bessie-The Faraway Tree-Enid Blyton
I like to think that 30 years on, the three of them would still be having adventures, albeit probably not of the magical tree climbing kind. They still have a love for adventure, although now of more conventional kinds, Jo would be a pilot, Fanny would travel the world teaching and Bessie would be a travel writer. All of them would still get together for crazy adventures now and then, and go visit their friends up the Faraway Tree, who haven’t aged a day!
4. Percy Jackson-Percy Jackson series-Rick Riordan
Hopefully 30 years on from the events of the series, Percy will finally have the chance to have a rest, he deserves it! He and Annabeth would be married and living together in the Big House at Camp Half-Blood, with their children, training the newest generation of demigods.
5. Charlie-Charlie and The Chocolate Factory-Roald Dahl
Another of Roald Dahl’s famous children’s characters, we leave Charlie as he’s inherited Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. 30 years on, I like to think that he would still be there, running the factory himself now and coming up with all sorts of wacky inventions for new sweets. Though I hope that he doesn’t invite a load of kids to the factory just to torture them.
6. The Pevensies-The Chronicles of Narnia-CS Lewis
Since the ending of The Chronicles of Narnia is kind of disappointing, I like to imagine different futures for the Pevensie children. Lucy would be an author, channelling her love for adventure through creating stories. Susan would be an actress, and would not be considered a sinner just because she likes lipstick and boys. Edmund and Peter I feel would both have gone into the army, like their dad.
7. Tracy Beaker-Tracy Beaker series-Jacqueline Wilson
Whilst we will find out soon enough what Tracy ended up doing with her life, in the newest installment of her adventures, this time with her daughter, I always imagined that Tracy would become an author, she always loved making up stories.
8. Sophie-Sophie Series-Dick King Smith
One of my favourite stories as a kid, Sophie followed a young girl Sophie, who dreamed of becoming a farmer. I like to think that thirty years on, after receiving her Aunt Al’s farm in the last book, that Sophie would still be running her farm, have many, many more animals and many more adventures.
9. Alice-Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland-Lewis Carroll
As an adult, whilst Alice may not be travelling to Wonderland anymore, I like to think that she would still be having adventures, as an explorer. She would travel the world, visiting different countires, exploring different cultures and generally having a great time.
10. Matilda-Matilda-Roald Dahl
And of course we end the list with the girl who started it all: Matilda. The three anniversary covers of the books depict her as an astrophysicist, world traveller and librarian, all awesome jobs for Matilda to have in the future, but I always pictured as a teacher, like Miss Honey, it makes sense to me that she would want to emulate the woman who inspired her the most and pass on her love of learning to the next generation.
Originally published at https://www.thenationalstudent.com.