Top Ten Tuesday: Who would you name your child after?

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at one of my favourite blogs: The Broke and the Bookish - http://www.brokeandbookish.blogspot.com.

This week’s topic is fantastic – Top Ten fiction/literary characters that you would name your child after. Fantastic! When I was a tween, I was determined to name my daughter Laura after Laura from The Little House on the Prairie. Since then I have been through many many books and my future children have been named various names depending on my fancy at the time.
Here is my current Top Ten:

10) Cassandra after the main character of Dodie Smith’s “I Capture the Castle” because she is a sensitive dreamer with a beautiful soul.

9) Jonathan after Prince Jonathan from Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness Series. Because I had a huge crush on him when I was 12-13 years old and still think the name is cute though I’ve recovered from my crush ;-)

8) Wilhelm after the two Wilhelms in Margit Söderholm’s Hellesta series because they embody the gallant Scandinavian man.

7) Viola after the lady in Shakespeare’s “The Twelfth Night”.

6) Penelope after the wife of Odysseus.

5) Elizabeth after one of my all-time favourite heroines Ms. Elizabeth Bennett from “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen.

4) Georgiana after Georgiana Darcy from “Pride and Prejudice”. Who wouldn’t want to name their daughter after such a truly accomplished young lady?

3) Cedric. As in Harry Potter’s Cedric Diggory because he is the archetypical high school hero.

2) Eryka after a character that appears briefly in “A Gathering of Gargoyles” by Meredith Ann Pierce. I love the sound of the name and what the character stands for in the book.

1)Lucia after the main character from the Mapp and Lucia books by E.F. Benson. Her real name is actually Emmeline and though she can be pretentious and really annoying at times, mostly she is a caring, loving woman with a great imagination and a resourceful way of handling all the skirmishes she has with Mapp. I love the name!

This was a tough one! Which names do you like? And why?

Top Ten Tuesday: Dazzling Debuts

Right so after a few intense working weeks with lots of traveling and on the homefront lots of ilness (why do those things happen at the same time? Flying with a migraine is very very unpleasant...)
Things seem to be going better now and what better way to celebrate that than to participate in today's Top Ten Tuesday?
This fantastic meme was created at The Broke and The Bookish - http://www.brokeandbookish.blogspot.com/ - a blog that you must visit!

This weeks subject is Favourite debut novels (from any author, any year). I have not included one-hit-wonders because that just didn't feel fair...
Here we go:

10) Evelyn Waugh: Decline and Fall
Satirical and extremely funny, making a fool of almost every character in the book, Waugh somehow manages to make this more than a comedy. A great reminder of all the trouble, naivety, pretentioness, laziness and greed can get you into.

9) Tamora Pierce: Alanna: The First Adventure
Pierce demonstrated from this first novel about Alanna and the kingdom of Tortall that she has a gift for making fantasy worlds come to life. From this book onwards the world of Alanna, her friends and family become better and better.

8) Alan Warner: Movern Callar
I think cool is the word to describe this novel about Morvern, a Scottish girl who steals her dead boyfriends unpublished novel and goes on a lifechanging journey.

7)Martin Amis: The Rachel Papers
Have just read this one and will review it this week. A really good novel about a teenage guy who falls in love or becomes infatuated with the slightly older and infintely more sophisticated Racel.

6) Dodie Smith: I Capture the Castle
A magical coming-of-age tale about Cassandra and her bohemian family. Smith later wrote "101 Dalmatians" and I still feel cheated that she did not write more.

5) F Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
More of a literary institution than a novel really. This book came to define an age and I think almost everyone who have taken a literature class has heard about it.


4) Michel Faber: Under the Skin
A seriously scary and uncomfortable read that nonetheless is fascinating and hard to put down. My stomach still turns when I think about it...

3) Karen Blixen: Seven Gothic Tales
Originally published under the name Isak Dinesen to disguise the gender of the author, this collection of short stories is a masterpiece from one of the greatest storytellers ever!

2) J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
From the very first HP novel, Rowling had her Hogwarts universe created down to the very last hair on Dumbledore's head. The magic began in this book which certainly did not seem like the work of a beginner!

1) Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility
This one is defitnitely one of the best debut novels ever. Full of emotions with enchanting, real characters and a great plot. The strength of this novel is the characters and many authors can only dream of bringing to life characters with as much skill and charm as Austen does in this her debut novel.

So which ones are your favourite debut novels of all times?

How do we get kids to read?

These days the national media here in Denmark have been focusing quite a bit on the fact that Danish kids are generally not very good at reading. Something which seems to be closely related to the fact that many kids state that they do not like to read. It has also been reported that the books on the curriculum often date back to when the children's parents were children and that there is a distinct lack of new books available to the children.
We all know that to be really good at something you need to be driven by a passion or at least an interest or a liking. So how do we get kids to read more and better? In my mind it is obvious: we give them access to good books!

When I was in school - 15 years ago - I very early discovered the joys of reading. No thanks to the school though, as the encouragement primarily came from my home and from the books that parents and family gave me. The stuff we read in school was honestly fairly dull at best and utterly excruciatingly bad at worst.
So if I could advise the teachers and educators out there, here are the books that I think they should let kids read:

The Harry Potter series by :
A modern classic. The magic of HP is not only related to wands, incantations and flying broomsticks. There is a magic in the writing itself, the magical universe that unfolds itself as you read and envelopes you in another world. I know people whose joy of reading was sparked by Harry Potter - that is true magic if you ask me.

The Alanna series by Tamora Pierce:
This is the coolest fantasy-history series ever. I have read it over and over and it never fails to enthrall me. It is the story of the girl Alanna who wants to be a knight and who therefore disguises herself as a boy and enters court life. Here she makes friends with royalty and thieves and gain enemies that seek to destroy her and the people she loves. A fantastic series set in a medieval environment that will catch imaginations of girls and boys alike.

The Shamer series by Lene Kaaberbol
This is a much celebrated fantasy series about Dina who has inherited powers that she fears. She is a Shamer who can unmask the soul’s darkest secrets and crimes.
When Dina's mother disappears, Dina travels to the House of the Ravens with the stranger, Drakan, to find her mother. This is a series that will capture boys and girls alike.

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
This book is a classic and albeit it is not a modern book, I think it will still appeal to modern children. Pippi is the original cool kid. Lives on her own with a monkey and a horse and you do not want to mess with her. She is the girl that all kids want to be friends with. And read about!

The Princess Diaries seris by Meg Cabot
Yes it has been made into two Disney movies starring Anne Hathaway and yes they are no masterpieces. The Princess Diaries series are not literary jewels but they have the ability to fascinate girls. Just imagine being princess Mia: a normal, dorky, geeky girl who turns out to be a princess and then has to struggle with princess lessons and people who want to trade on her status. Not really a politically correct choice but tween girls love it!

Otto is a Rhino by Ole Lund Kirkegaard
Not a new book but one that has stood the test of time. It is the story of a drawn rhino coming to life and creating havoc and it will definitely make childrens imaginations run wild.

What would you encourage children to read to get a passion for books?