What do you think children's book characters would be like as adults? Tell us by Friday 9 December, 5pm to win The Return of the Young Prince goodies

[SorchaMumsnet]

The Return of the Young Prince is a beautiful tribute to the beloved classic The Little Prince, with specially commissioned illustrations by the award-winning artist Pietari Posti.

Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince. But even princes from faraway planets eventually grow up. No longer content with his tiny planet, the young prince sets off once again to explore the universe.

And so begins another remarkable journey into the secrets and joys of living a meaningful life. The Return of the Young Prince is a charming fable for all ages, and a wonderful sequel to the original tale.

"This book reminds us of the values we should never have abandoned: the importance of friendship, family, community and compassion – the pillars of every civilized society." - Bruno d’Agay, a member of the Saint Exupéry family

What do you think children's book characters would be like as adults? Tell us to win a copy of The Return of the Young Prince PLUS two illustrated prints from the book, bookmark and poster!

This discussion is sponsored by Oneworld Publications and will close on Friday 9 December at 5pm

For some reason my son always think peter rabbit will grow to become a prince, and he will rescue lily, who was bewitched as a rabbit but was truly a princess.

Children's book characters as adults; I would suspect that there will be level of uncertainly in how they turn out, like you would expect from real people. And it's this uncertainty, that makes the story interesting.

I would also expect some level of struggle as the characters try to break away from the expectations that readers may have on them.

Whatever the outcome, and however the characters turn out to be, it would be interesting to read how the character is the same, but at the same time, different. As well as how things and events that have occurred in their "life" influenced who they become.

Arabel of Arabel's Raven would be an agony aunt.

Poor Posy Fossil would be trapped behind the Iron Curtain for her whole dancing career but would survive to commentate on the fall of communism as a grand old dame. She would occasionally be able to travel to Pauline in Hollywood throughout the 60s but sadly Pauline was not as long lived as her sister. Petrova develops a promising scientific career but disappears into the Soviet Union in search of her family.

Anne from the Famous Five. I imagine she would have been a headmistress, although given the times more likely a housewife.

Pippi Longstocking, - an Explorer.

The Pellinor series by Alison Craig and had an epilogue to say what happened to Maerad. I discovered it on my second or third read of the series. It didn't match what I had in. My imagination and I was rather disappointed.

I think many of these characters would end up writers. If you had such amazing stories to tell or memories to keep alive, I can't imagine them doing much else!

harry potter would grow up as loyal and family orientated as the books tells now.all of them friends and there for eacohter. ron would take over the family home and mr and mrs weasley would live in a muggle house annexe for lovely muggle obsessed mr weasley in the fields.the twin would be married. harry and ginny would be head and head mistress and ron and hermoine heads of years. Malfoy would be dark eats teacher and good friend. mcgonnagle would live on site in room of rewuitemnets.

winnie the ppoh and friends would all be grown up.pooh have his own mini honey eating bear cubs.tigger bouncing family. e-ypre happy little donkey brood! piglets children would be teeny tiny

I think Heidi would be a ballet dancer as I imagined her running light footed through the very green mountain grass and wild flowers. She would win the Prix de Lausanne dance competition and from there would win a scholarship with the Ballettschule Theater, Basel, and from there would be the principal dancer with the Ballet Zurich where she would be loved by everyone who came to watch her.

Famous Five - Julian becomes a banker with extreme right wing views that alienate him from the rest of his family, much to his fury. He never marries.
Anne marries an ambitious politician, and after several years of hosting dinner parties and pretending to enjoy it, she disappears to Africa to work with children in remote villages.
George breeds dogs and finds the rest of the family annoying. She vows to never marry, but meets an amiable aging hippy, and together they run an organic gardening centre.
Dick becomes a portly, pleasant country doctor with a bossy but kind wife and three very demanding, lively little boys.

Not my idea, but there's a rather wonderful series of fanfics in which Bran from the Dark is Rising books grows up to be a charismatic Welsh nationalist politician and Plaid Cymru MP.

Joe, Bessie and Fanny from The Magic Faraway Tree would all have gone their separate ways but would meet up annually and still relive 'The Land of Treats' and 'The Land of Do As You Please'. In reality this would probably involve lots of coffee, cake & wine!

Sara from A Little Princess becomes an agitator for women's suffrage when she finishes school, and serves time in Holloway where of course she entertains the prisoners with her wonderful stories and gradually wins round the warders. When war breaks out she enrols for nurse training, and after serving her apprenticeship in a London hospital, travels to France where she tends to both the broken bodies and broken spirits of the soldiers.

After the end of the war she can't settle into being a London society lady, so she travels to Germany where she meets Rosa Luxemburg and becomes a Communist, writing pamphlets for adults and stories about communist utopias for children. These become very popular and gain a mass readership, so that when 'national socialism' emerges in the 1930s it has no chance to gain support in the popular imagination and it soon dies away.

Sara becomes minister for culture in Rosa Luxemburg's socialist government of the 1940s, and makes sweeping reforms to education, making a liberal arts-type education the right of all German children up to the age of 17, with abundant adult education opportunities set up for those who missed out. On a ministerial visit to the UK she meets like-minded education minister Phyllis Waterbury, and the two of them work together on similar reforms elsewhere in Europe. They remain friends, and after the collapse of the US economy and resultant unrest in the mid-1950s, they go on a pioneering visit to work with the organisations setting up the new federated socialist state of northern America.

In the 1970s Sara returns to the UK to enjoy her retirement in a nursing home in Cornwall run by Darrell Rivers. When her health and energy levels permit, she visits the local school, which was once a famous girls' boarding school and is now a pioneering education centre for all ages, to tell her famous stories to the students there.

Veruca Salt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would still be spoilt and demanding, but as an adult she'd unleash her force on the world through social media. She'd be bragging on Instagram and Facebook non-stop and she'd spend her days at celebrity parties and on yachts.

Christopher Robin from Winnie the Pooh would have become a bookish Oxford don with a rich imagination and gone on to write The Hobbit.

Christopher Robin - very sensible but with a sense of fun. if some of the leaders in the world were like then it would be a better place.

My daughters favourite books (and mine!) are about Mr Pusskins. He is grumpy, ungrateful and doesn't appreciate his loving owner Emily. Even though after a scare, he realises what he could lose, I still think of him when he's older as a cat who still longs for adventure. He may have used up most in his 9 lives but when the moon is up, he slinks off to join the Pesky Cat Gang for some naughty antics. His eyes still sparkle with naughtiness and there will always be mischief in his heart (he reminds us of our cat Mabel!)

Goldilocks from Goldilocks and the Three Bears would either be in trouble with the law for trespassing, or perhaps an expert chief given her precision for getting recipes "just right", or maybe she would own a line of luxury family hotels catering to the different porridge and bed designs needed for the individual preferences :P

Measle (from Measle and the Wrathmonk) would be very clean and scared of train sets and bats! He would live in a bungalow and never go in the attic

Sara from A Little Princess would either go one of two ways...end up running a boarding school herself (a deliberately much nicer place than the one she attended!) or a very snooty 'hands off' mother who packed her kid(s) away to one herself :p

Animal Ark - I'm sure Mandy does end up as a vet, but I'd love to know if she and James marry in the end.

I don't know, perhaps they'd just go on being best friends, end up at different universities and when they're both back in Welford realise they always want to be together and everybody will be very happy for them or they'd have a spectacularly awkward series of dates in their teens and never recover from that!

Tracy Beaker would become part of the 'Establishment'!

Mary and Colin from a secret garden get married and then become deeply involved in Hindu mysticism following a return visit to India where they meets a Guru. They come back to the UK and turns Mistlethwaite into a new age retreat where people come to 'find themselves'. They are viewed as completely scandalous by their peers for their strange beliefs.

We've really enjoyed reading all your imagined futures for these characters. The winner of the Return of the Young Prince goodies is Helenluvsrob!