Characters
CHARACTERS are responsible for telling the story either by their actions or their
words. You can have a great plot idea, but you must have compelling characters to
make your story interesting. People read books about characters they care about.
There are two types of main characters: the hero and the villain.
• The Hero is usually the focus of a story. He is the good guy. The story often
revolves around his adventures.
• The Heroine is the main female character. She can be the main focus of the
story.
• The villain often has the opposite goals. He tries to prevent the hero from
achieving his goals.
• The villainess is the female opposite of a heroine.
After you have finished reading a book, make a deck of cards.
Materials 2 sheets white paper, colored pencils, scissors, construction paper
Procedure
STEP 1 Fold each piece of white paper into eight equal sections, you will have 16 sections
STEP 2 Select 12 characters from the book, order the characters from most important to
least important and assign a card value from 2 through king. King is most important.
2__________ 3__________ 4__________ 5___________
6__________ 7__________ 8__________ 9___________
10_________ J__________ Q__________ K___________
STEP 3 The Ace will represent the author
STEP 4 Illustrate each card to represent the character or author
STEP 5 Place the value of the card in all four corners
STEP 6 Make four copies of each set of cards
STEP 7After the copies are made, make each set of characters a different suit:: spades, heart,
diamonds or clubs.
STEP 8: Glue the cards to construction paper and cut out the 52 cards
(K) Charlotte Doyle from True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, (A) author card from Thief of Always,
(10) Princess Rhyme and Princes Reason from Phantom Tollbooth