Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

If you are new to my blog, I just wanted to share with you that I co-host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea (no you don’t have to drink tea to participate) and you can find a link to it at the top of the page or here.

The link party is for all book-related posts from reviews and recommendations to …well, anything related to books at all. Including Top Ten Tuesday if you want to link your top ten there too!

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is: Favorite Secondary/Minor Characters

I had to think pretty hard about this one as I haven’t read as many books as others have, so I don’t have as many books to choose from, and I know I will think of others after I publish this, but here goes.

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1. Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien

In some ways Sam is a main character in Lord of the Rings and to me he is one of THE main characters, but he is considered as a secondary character too since he is Frodo’s “sidekick.”

Let’s all be honest, though, Frodo never would have made it to destroy the ring if it wasn’t for Sam supporting him, and sometimes even carrying him, on his journey. Frodo gets the credit for destroying the ring, and he did withstand the temptation of it the longest, but he would have been completely lost without Sam.

2. Diana Barry from the Anne of Green Gables books by L.M. Montgomery

Diana Barry is Anne Shirley’s best friend in the Anne of Green Gables series and especially in book one when they first meet.

She is Anne’s best friend, loyal at all costs, and just so sweet to Anne — even after Anne gets her drunk and disapproves of the man she’s going to marry. Ha!

3. Huck Finn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Huckleberry Finn is one of the most fun side characters ever. He’s in the middle of all the drama in Tom Sawyer and then he gets his own book in the sequel. I haven’t read Tom Sawyer all the way through since I was in junior high but I plan to do so this summer.

My son and I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a few years ago for school.

4. Polly Duncan in The Cat Who book series…by Lilian Jackson Braun

Polly is the main character Jim Qwilleran (Qwill)’s girlfriend and the town librarian. She is mild mannered, most of the time, sweet and very smart. I don’t like that Lilian describes her as boring and mundane at times and I also don’t like she often comments on her weight (though Qwill doesn’t seem to mind it) and eventually has her have a heart attack, but I do like Polly and how she  handles the sometimes rude, maybe a bit chauvinistic Qwill (the books are a product of their time in some ways), and how she likes to take care of Qwill without pushing him toward marriage.

5. Dr. John Watson from the Sherlock Holmes short stories and novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Dr. John Watson is Sherlock Holmes’s right-hand man, confidant, and co-sleuth. Sometimes he is as smart as Sherlock and many times he leads an investigation and puts himself in danger while Holmes is working on another area of the case (like in The Hound of The Baskervilles).

As an aside, I was sad to see that David Burke, the actor who played Watson in the first season of the  1980s Sherlock Holmes opposite Jeremy Brett, passed away this past week.

6. Dill from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I have to be honest and admit that I did not think of this one on my own. I’m surprised I didn’t since To Kill A Mockingbird is my favorite book. I saw it on a list online about secondary characters, which I looked up to refresh my memory of some of my favorites when my brain started drawing blanks.

Dill is the best friend of main characters Jem and Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. He spends his summers in their town after essentially being abandoned to his aunt’s every summer by his parents. Eventually he begins choosing to visit his aunt so he can see Jem and Scout, who make him feel like he belongs.

He is the catalyst for getting another great secondary character, Boo Radley, to come out of his house and also instigates several other pivotal scenes and moments that make the reader think about a wide variety of issues — one being children and people who feel neglected.

7. Bess Marvin in the Nancy Drew Mystery series by Carolyn Keene

Bess Marvin is one of Nancy’s friends and the cousin of George Fayne, who incessantly picks on Bess.

Bess is described as pleasantly plump in the early Nancy Drew books and her weight is pointed out often, but she’s portrayed, mainly, as the sometimes nervous friend of Nancy’s who gets dragged into many mysteries she’d rather stay out of.

While Nancy’s other friend, and Bess’s cousin, George, is more adventurous and outgoing, Bess prefers to wring her hands a bit and say things like, “Can’t we just go back home? It’s dark in there.”

I can relate to Bess. I’m heavy, not pleasantly, plump, but I am the one in a group who would be suggesting we all go home and let the police handle it.

8. Fairlight Spencer from Christy by Catherine Marshall

When Christy Huddleston moves to the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee to be a teacher at rural school in Cutter Gap, she meets Fairlight, an abused mother who wants an education and to improve herself. The two become fast friends and Fairlight teaches Christy about nature and how to communicate with the people of Cutter Gap. Fairlight is just about my favorite character in the book besides Miss Alice. Fairlight loves to pause and admire God’s handiwork by watching a sunset or looking at flowers.

I won’t say much about the end of the book other than I felt Marshall was very unfair to her character. It’s why I doubt I’d read the book again.

9. Eustace Scrubb from The Voyage of The Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

Eustace is the cousin of the children we know so well from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (if you’ve ever read it) — Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy. When he gets pulled into a painting in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader he becomes a central character, but still a secondary character (to me) in the Narnia series.

Eustace starts out miserable, mean, and a little brat. Things definitely change as the book goes on and he is changed by the traumatic experiences that happen to him throughout the  book.

10. Marmee March from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The mother of the ‘little women’ (Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth) truly isn’t a secondary character. She is the character that holds the book together, in my opinion, even more than Jo. She holds the family and the book together, the guiding light for the little family who faces so many trials, heartache, and also joy. But, I suppose, the girls are the main characters and she would be considered a very, very important secondary character.

 How about you?

Do you have some favorite secondary characters?

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On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.

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Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

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