[The Saucepan Man]

The results of my own very unscientific research. Make of it what you will ...

I took my 7 year old daughter to see the new Harry Potter film today. On leaving the cinema, I asked her who her favourite character was.

"Hermione," she said without hesitation.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because she's a girl," she replied.

Being immediately reminded of this thread, I tried a few other books and films.

Her immediate response to the same question asked in relation to the Faraway Tree books (which we have read recently) was Silky, the Fairy (one of the few female characters amongst the folk of the Faraway Tree). After some thought, however, she changed her decision to the Saucepan Man - "Because he's funny".

Her favourite character in Shrek was Princess Fiona - and Donkey (the latter, again, because he's funny).

As for the LotR films (we have not read the book together yet), her answer was "Shadowfax", followed by "No, Arwen".

I also recall that, when we went to see The Invincibles, her favourite character was Violet, the daughter of the family.

"Would you enjoy a story if it had no girls in it?" I asked her.

"No," she replied adamantly.

"But you enjoyed The Hobbit, didn't you? That doesn't have any girls in it."

"It has a girl in it at the end."

"Who's that?" I asked, finding it difficult to imagine that she was referring to Lobelia.

"Oh, I don't know ..." she replied.

To be fair, it is some 2 years since we read The Hobbit together, and she certainly enjoyed it at the time. I'm planning on reading it again soon to her and her 5 year old brother. We shall see whether she enjoys it as much now ...

As I said, make of this what you will.