Top 5 Character Introductions

A good character will be well remembered no matter how they are introduced.  But the more memorable their introduction, the better!

Here are five beloved characters, with what I consider the best entrances!

1. Alan Breck, from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped– This intrepid Scotsman leaps into Kidnapped by also leaping from one ship to another.  In this way he doesn’t just save himself from a disastrous shipwreck, he also shows his daring and extravagant nature.  
2. Artham P Wingfeather, from Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga– Both introductions count, because in a way he does have two. Sweeping in on great wings after a rescue or walking on his hands during a small town fair, either way Artham captures my attention!
3. Praiseworthy and Jack, from Sid Fleischman’s By the Great Horn Spoon – remember when I mentioned the Great Horn Spoon in this post? These are the main characters.  Right off the bat we meet them emerging from barrels of potatoes, having stowed away on a ship.

   

   ‘By the Great Horn Spoon!’  Written by Sid Fleischman, illustrated by Eric von Schmidt

4. Aunt Josephine, from L.M. Montgomery’s  Anne of Green Gables– Aunt Josephine was a lovely character, but I wouldn’t want to meet her in the way Anne did. I wouldn’t want to meet anybody by accidentally pouncing on them.
5. Thorin Oakenshield, from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit– All the dwarves should be listed here, since their introductions come in thick and fast. But Thorin’s is the most important and also the most awkward.

Bilbo rushed along the passage, very angry, and altogether bewildered and bewuthered-this was the most awkward Wednesday he ever remembered.  He pulled open the door with a jerk, and they all fell in, one on top of the other.  More dwarves, four more! And there was Gandalf behind, leaning on his staff and laughing… “Carefully, Carefully!” he said.  “It is not like you, Bilbo, to keep friends waiting on the mat, and then open the door like a pop-gun!  Let me introduce Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, and especially Thorin!”  “At your service!” said Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur, standing in a row.  Then they hung up two yellow hoods and a pale green one; and also a sky-blue one with a long silver tassel.  This last belonged to Thorin,an enormously important dwarf, in fact no other than the great Thorin Oakenshield himself, who was not at all pleased at falling flat on Bilbo’s mat with Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur on top of him.

First impressions are always important.  Even with book characters.