Great Antagonists of Children's Literature

UPDATE - The list so far (242):

101 Dalmations: Cruella DeVil
Acceleration: Initially anonymous murderer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Pap
Alice in Wonderland: The Queen of Hearts
Amandine: Amandine
Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents: Maurice
The American Girl mysteries: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
Among the Walnuts: The Uncles
Anatopsis: Mr. Pound
Angelina Ballerina: Priscilla
Angelina Ballerina: Penelope
Angelina Ballerina: Mrs. Hodgepodge
Anne of Green Gables: Mrs. Barry
Anne of Green Gables: Rachel Lynde
The Anne of Green Gables series: Jen Pringle
The Artemis Fowl series: Artemis Fowl
The Artemis Fowl series: Opal Koboi
The Arthur series: Binky Barnes
The Baby-Sitters Club : Cokie
The Baby-Sitters Club mysteries: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
The Babymouse series: Felicia Furrypaws
A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl: The unnamed bad boy
Bambi: Hunters
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: The Herdmans
The Bobbsey Twins series: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
Body of Evidence series: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
The Book of Dead Days: Valerian
The Borrowers: Mrs. Driver (the cook)
The Borrowers series: Human Beans
Boy Heaven: Kristy
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Veruca Salt
The Charlie Bone series: Ezekiel Bloor
The Charlie Bone series: Manfred Bloor
Charlotte's Web: The farmer
Charlotte's Web: Templeton the Rat
The Cherry Ames series: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
The Chet Gecko series: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Childcatcher
The Chronicles of Prydain: Arawn
Cinderella: The Step-mother
Cinderella: The Step-sisters
Coraline: The Other Mother
Counting on Grace: Mr. Wilson
Devilish: Lanalee
The Diamond in the Window: Jacaranda (Prince Krishna's Uncle)
The Diary of Anne Frank: The Nazis
The Disney Fairies series: Vidia
Dragon Rider: Nettlebrand
Dream Spinner: The old man
Dumbo: The Ringmaster
The Edge Chronicles: The Gloamglozer
Eight Cousins: Aunt Myra
Ella Enchanted: Lucinda
The Emily of New Moon series: The Murray aunts and uncles
Emily's Quest: Dean Priest
The Emperor's New Clothes: The 2 Tailors
The Encyclopedia Brown series: Bugs Meany
The Encyclopedia Brown series: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
Ender's Game: The Buggers
Enna Burning: Sileph
Eragon: Galbatorix
Fairest: Queen Ivi
Fairest: Skulni
Fairy Realm: Valda
Fairy Realm: The Bins Family
Fairy Realm: Mrs. Tweedie
Fairy Realm: Her teacher
The Fairy Rebel: The Fairy Queen
The Fallen quartet: Verchiel
Fantastic Mr. Fox: Farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean
The Fear Street series: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
Fly By Night: Mr. Kohlrabi
Freckles: Black Jack
Frindle: Mrs. Granger
A Girl of the Limberlost: Mrs. Comstock
Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Goldilocks
The Goose Girl: Curdken
The Goosebumps series: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
Gossamer: The Sinisteeds
The Great Brain: Mr. Standish
The Grinch who Stole Christmas: The Grinch
The Guardian of Time trilogy: The Order
Hansel and Gretel: The Step-mother
Hansel and Gretel: The Witch
The Hardy Boys series: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
The Harry Potter Series: all Death Eaters
The Harry Potter Series: Filch
The Harry Potter Series: Draco Malfoy
The Harry Potter series: Severus Snape
The Harry Potter Series: Professor Umbridge
The Harry Potter series: Voldemort
The Harry Potter series: Aragog
The Harry Potter series: Fluffy
The Harry Potter series: The Basilisk
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray: The Wych-Kin
The His Dark Materials series: Mrs. Coulter
The His Dark Materials series: Father Luis Gomez
The His Dark Materials series: Lord Carlo Boreal
The His Dark Materials series: Mrs. Coulter's unnamed golden monkey
The His Dark Materials series: Regent Metatron
The His Dark Materials series: The Authority
The Hobbit: Smaug the Dragon
The Hobbit: The Spiders
Holes: The Warden
The Hollow Kingdom: Marak
The Hollow Kingdom: Hugh Roberts
Homecoming: Great-Aunt Cilla
Hoot: Dana Matherson
The Horse and His Boy: Rabadash
Horton Hears a Who: The Wickersham Brothers
Howl's Moving Castle: The Witch of the Waste
I, Coriander: Arise Fell
Inheart: Capricorn
Jack and the Beanstalk: The Giant
James and the Giant Peach: Aunts Sponge and Spiker
The Jennifer Scales series: Various spies, double agents, other bad guys
The Jungle Book: Shere Khan
The Keys to the Kingdom series: Day-of-the-week villain
The Last Battle: Shift the Ape
The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters: Luke
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: The Witch
Lionboy: Rafi Sadler
The Little House series: Nellie Oleson
The Little Mermaid: The Sea Witch
The Little Princess: Mrs. Minchin
Little Red Riding Hood: The Wolf
Little Women: Aunt March
Lord of the Rings: Boromir
Lord of the Rings: Gollum
Lord of the Rings: The Ringwraiths
Lord of the Rings: Saruman
Lord of the Rings: Sauron
Lord of the Rings: Worm-Tongue
The Loud Silence of Francine Green: Sister Basil
Magyc: The Supreme Custodian
Mary Poppins: Miss Andrew
Matilda: Miss Trunchbull
May Bird and the Ever After: Bo Cleevil
May Bird and the Ever After: The Bogie Man
The Meanest Doll in the World: Mimi
Meg mystery series: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
Men of Iron: The Earl of Alban
The Midnighters trilogy: The darklings
Miss Nelson is Missing: Miss Viola Swamp
Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure: The Majaraja
Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism: Miss Adderstone
Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism: Primo Cell
Mortal Engines: Thaddeus Valentine
The Mouse and His Child: Manny Rat
The Nancy Drew series: Deirdre Shannon
The Nancy Drew series: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
The NeverEnding Story: Gmork
The NeverEnding Story: The Nothing
The NeverEnding Story: Xayide
The NeverEnding Story: Ygramul
A Northern Light: Grace Brown's Fiance
A Northern Light: Pa
Oh My Goth: Jade
Oh My Goth: The principal
Oliver Twist: Bill Sykes
The Orphan Prince: The Black Wolf
OutCast: Cassandra's grandfather
Ozma of Oz: Princess Langwidere
The Penderwicks: Mrs. Tifton
The Pendragon series: Saint Dane
The Peter and the Starcatchers series: Lord Ombra
Peter Pan: Captain Hook
Peter Pan: Tinkerbell
The Pinhoe Egg: Gaffer Farleigh
Pinocchio: The fox
Pinocchio: The cat
Pirates!: Captain Bartholome
Playing in Traffic: Skye
Poison: Alethar, Lord of Phaerie
Pollyanna: Aunt Polly
Prince Caspian: King Miraz
Princess Academy: Katar
Princess Academy: Tutor Olana
The Princess Diaries series: Lana Weinberger
The Prophet of Yonwood: Brenda
The Prowlers quartet: Jasmine
Pure Dead Magic: Lucifer Strega-Borgia
Pure Dead Magic: Pronto
Rapunzel: Enchantress
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm: Aunt Miranda
Redwall: Cluny the Scourge
Ring of Bright Water: man who attacks otter
Rose in Bloom: Charlie
Rumpelstiltskin: Rumpelstiltskin
The Saddle Club: Veronica diAngelo
Secret Under My Skin: Marella
Secrets of Dripping Fang: The Onts
The Series of Unfortunate Events series: Count Olaf
The Series of Unfortunate Events series: Count Olaf's accomplices
The Series of Unfortunate Events series: Vice Principal Nero
The Series of Unfortunate Events series: Carmelita Spats
The Series of Unfortunate Events series: Esme Squalor
The Shadow Children series: The government baddies
Sideways Stories from Wayside School: Mrs. Gorf
The Silver Chair: The Queen of the Underland
The Sleeper Conspiracy: Tyler Garrett
The Sleeper Conspiracy: Various spies, double agents, other bad guys
Sleeping Beauty: The Wicked Fairy
The Sneetches: The star-bellied Sneetches
Snow White: Wicked Stepmother
Snow-White and Rose-Red: The dwarf
The Somebodies: The Blue Queen
The Spider and the Fly: The Spider
The Spiderwick Chronicles: Mulgarath
Spy Mice: Roquefort Dupont
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes: Mr. Byrnes
Stormbreaker: Herod Sayle
Stormbreaker: Mr. Grin
Stormbreaker: Nadia Vole
Straight on 'til Morning: The Lost Boys
Struggling Upward: Coleman
Struggling Upward: Randolph
Such a Good Girl: The father
Surrender: Finnegan
The Swallows and Amazons series: Great Aunt Maria
The Taffy Sinclair series: Taffy Sinclair
The Tale of Bluebeard: Bluebeard
The Tale of Despereaux: Botticelli
The Three Little Pigs: The Big Bad Wolf
Through the Looking Glass: The Red Queen
The Tooth Fairy: Jessica
Treasure Island: Long John Silver
The Trixie Belden series: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle: Captain Jaggerty
Tuck Everlasting: The Man in the Yellow Suit
The Twits: Mr. and Mrs. Twit
The Two-Minute Mysteries series: Every thief, kidnapper or general bad guy
The Uglies trilogy: Various spies, double agents, other bad guys
The Westing Game: Grace Windsor Wexler
The Westing Game: Angela Wexler
The Witches: The Grand High Witch
The Wizard of Oz: Wicked Witch of the West
The Wizard of Oz: The Wizard
The Wizard of Oz: The winged monkeys
Wolves of Willoughby Chase: Miss Slighcarp
A Wrinkle in Time: It
The Young Wizards series: The Lone Power

Please use the comments box to add to this list!

Who do you love to hate?

I've been faithfully reading Jen Robinson's Book Page since I discovered it about a week ago. Diving into the archives, and the wonderful links in the sidebar, I found two fantastic lists Jen has put together: Cool Girls and Cool Boys from children's literature. I encourage folks to take a look at these lists and offer more suggestions if you think of other cool boys and cool girls.

Jen's blog also pointed me to two other lists worth checking out: Cool Teachers and Librarians from children's literature.

Okay, so here's my idea for a list: Great Antagonists in Children's Literature. Antagonists can range from the truly evil to the deep-down-not-so-bad, but always they are pitted against our heroes and we inevitably root against them in one way or another.

To save people from any anguish over putting a somewhat sympathetic "bad-guy" into the same list with the likes of Voldemort, I'm splitting this list into two categories. The first few entries for each group are shown below to get it started.

So I ask again, who do you love to hate?

Group 1: Hate Them or Love to Hate Them

Voldemort from the Harry Potter series
Count Olaf from the Series of Unfortunate Events series
Cruella DeVil from 101 Dalmations

Group 2: Love Them Despite Their Misguided Ways

Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series (book 7 to reveal whether he moves to other category)
Nellie Oleson from the Little House series
Aunt March from Little Women
Aunt Miranda from Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Don't forget to add your thoughts in the comments!

Someone Else to Watch Your Language For You

I mentioned in an earlier post the delightfully funny Grammar Cop series over at Banterist.com. I thought I'd offer a few quick links to some of the ones I find particularly good....

...this one from the American Stock Exchange entrance
...this one about the self-obsession of French cheese
...this one from the martial arts studio
...this one, which I'm laughing about too much to summarize
...and lastly, this one, which has a nice variety of infractions.

Here is the full archive of all the Grammar Cop posts.

A Little Poetry for You (Robert Frost)

From Robert Frost, a poem entitled "Nothing Gold Can Stay." You may remember this as the poem Ponyboy read to Johnny in The Outsiders. Even before I connected the poem to the book and movie, this one made me a little weepy.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leafs a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Quote of the Day, 8/15/06

Three quotes about how much time it takes to be brief:

Cicero (also attributed to many others)
If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.

Pascal
This [letter] would not be so long had I but the leisure to make it shorter.

Thoreau
Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.

Not Exactly West Side Story

I can't thank Greg (of Gotta Book fame) enough for offering this link today.

I passed up an adjunct teaching gig this morning, and now I'm feeling sort of sorry that I missed the chance to witness things like this.

My 101st Post - Farewell to the Green

In honor of my 100th post, which was the Quote below, I have shed the green -- it was getting on my nerves.

Hope the blue proves more soothing.

Quote of the Day, 8/14/06

I found this quote today and thought it worthwile. It's attributed to George Bernard Shaw (in a letter to Golding Bright), which means if I can grab me a copy of GBS' Advice to a Young Critic, it should be there.... Anyway, good stuff:

You say you are hardly qualified to write books just yet. That is just why I recommend that you try...One progresses in this as in all things by resolutely making a fool of onesself.

Playing with Words - Symmetry

What is word symmetry? According to Fun With Words, The Wordplay Website, a symmetrical word can be rotated on an axis point and come out to be the same word.

So for instance, MOM has vertical symmetry because it can be rotated on it's vertical axis without changing the word (imagine drawing a line down the middle of the O, and flipping the word on that line). But if you rotated MOM horizontally, you would get WOW -- therefore, MOM does not have horizontal symmetry.

Some words that do have horizontal symmetry include BED and COOK.

Check out Word Play for some examples of pretty long words with vertical or horizontal symmetry, but before you do, can you guess the following:

1. A word that has 180-degree rotational symmetry (if you grabbed the bottom right corner of the word, and spun the word halfway around so that this corner now became the top left, and you ended up with the same word)?

2. A word that has horizontal symmetry when in capital letters, but vertical symmetry when in small letters?

You'll find the answers here.

Quote of the Day, 8/13/06

Two from Helen Keller:

I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers.

It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.

NRKII Work - Magnetic Poetry in Action

I finally went back to magnetic poetry today, after a long time away. Although the results aren't always great, the process is good discipline because it forces me to condense thoughts into small phrases, and in many ways, it creates a situation where the language drives the thoughts rather than the other way around.

Today, the words available at Poetry in Motion were just horrible and I could not put them together into anything coherent. Over at Shadow Poetry, which is a little harder to use but otherwise identical, I came up with this (forcing myself to stay under 20 words, as I would have done on Poetry in Motion):

Writing my father
I grow sweet.
A child emerges
written in rhyme
not by a poet
not me.

If you're looking for the links to try your hand at this yourself, please read my earlier post on magnetic poetry.

Quote of the Day, 8/12/06

I listened to this song on my way home last night, and the lyric has been sticking with me all day. This is from an Irish folk song, "The Water is Wide."

The water is wide -- I cannot get o'er.
Neither have I the wings to fly.
Give me a boat that can carry two,
Then both shall row -- my love and I.

The Old Man and the ABCs

Greg over at Gotta Book has a fun challenge for creative thinkers.

Think up book titles for the kids' books that adult authors would write.

A couple of my favorites:

Hemingway -- The Old Man and the ABCs
Christie -- And Then There Were None: a Counting Book

And one of my own suggestions:

King -- The Lemonade Stand

More Encouragement to Write Poetry

Debra over at the Book-Blog is holding a haiku contest. I'll get to work on mine in the morning and post it here.

Update: the haiku must contain the word "prose" in it. Here is my first attempt:

Prose is the apple.
Poetry is its liquid,
grainy, tangy crunch.

Thanks for the challenge Debra!

Rowling + King + Irving Event Now on Video at MSN

The video recording of the J. K. Rowling, Stephen King and John Irving benefit reading is available on MSN Video. It was a great evening, so I encourage you to check it out.

USE THIS LINK FOR AN EVENING WITH HARRY, CARRIE AND GARP

I didn't see this email in my inbox until late Friday, but it looks like the video is still up if you want to see it!

Keep in mind the show was a benefit, so if you do watch, feel encouraged to make a donation. From Stephen King's newsletter:

Proceeds from the readings benefit two non-profit organizations: The Haven Foundation, which helps freelance performing artists and writers whose accidents or illnesses have left them unable to work www.thehavenfdn.org, and Doctors Without Borders/ Medecins San Frontieres (MSF), the international independent medical humanitarian organization www.doctorswithoutborders.org.

Did J.K. Rowling Really Have the Best Shoes?

You decide. Even with an image this fuzzy, I don't think it's a tough call.

Wanna Smile?

And because I just can't get enough of the things they post on Mental Floss, here's a fantastic father-son (or mother-daughter?) shot to brighten your day.

Click here.

You're welcome.

Longest, Most Beautiful Sentence

Robin over at Big Window put forth a new writing challenge yesterday, again courtesy of Bernadette Mayer. Thanks for the prompt Robin!

Here is my response, which isn't even close to meeting the full-page requirement, but is the longest coherent sentence I could come up with. Not sure if I'd call it beautiful, but it doesn't stink.

After slipping on her scarf and mittens and easing out the back door in search of mental distance from the chaos in her kitchen, she found herself struck by the solitude of a lone loon gliding softly to land on the lake, placing itself in the midst of a million gold sparkles in the sunset water, drifting alone as hermit in the woods making no sound and desiring no company; and she held her breath -- afraid to evict the creature with even the slightest unwelcome noise -- and imagined herself so solitary, soaring, silent, and softly drifting where her soul would take her, and she cried quietly in the fading light.

Quote of the Day, 8/11/06

Sticking to a show-tunes theme for the moment (see below post), I'll offer some thoughts from Stephen Sondheim. I like how much of what he says could apply to any type of writing.

Every writer I've ever spoken to feels fraudulent in some way or other.

For me it's more fun to find an unexpected moment for a character to sing when you don't expect them to.

The worst thing you can do is censor yourself as the pencil hits the paper. You must not edit until you get it all on paper. If you can put everything down, stream-of-consciousness, you'll do yourself a service.

And this, from "Send in the Clowns"...

Just when I'd stopped
Opening doors,
Finally knowing
The one that I wanted was yours,
Making my entrance again
With my usual flair,
Sure of my lines,
No one is there.

Name these Tunes

1.
In the roaring traffic's boom,
in the silence of my lonely room,
I think of you.

2.
You're a Boticcelli,
You're Keats,
You're Shelly!
You're Ovaltine!

3.
Oh, I feel that I could melt ;
Into Heaven I'm hurled !
I know how Columbus felt,
Finding another world.

4.
They told Marconi
Wireless was a phony
It's the same old cry

5.
Never saw the sun shining so bright
Never saw things going so right
Noticing the days hurrying by
When youre in love, my how they fly

6.
When the things youve planned
Need a helping hand,
I will understand ...


Note: Answers posted in comments

Star Trek Life Lessons

A special note for my brothers, and any other Trekkies out there.

Check out this site for some Trek-related fun.