Depictions of the one child family in books

[BoccaDellaVerita]

Following the thread about where the desire to have a family of a particular size comes from, I've been thinking about the depiction of families in children's books. Of course, most families have more than one child and it's not surprising that children's books reflect this. A few that come to mind from my youth are

Narnia Chronicles 4
The Railway Children 3
Ballet Shoes 3
My Family and Other Animals 4

BabyBocca is a voracious reader and I'd like to find her a book which depicts an only child (and ideally as part of an ordinary family set-up, rather than (say) an orphan). Milly Molly Mandy is the only one I can think of but surely there are others.

Any suggestions?

why thank you bocca. I have creme de cassis, we can have kir royales

edmund - he's one of 4

I thought Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were siblings?

Edmund is one of the siblings, but Eutace who turns up later is an only. Not a nice character, though, until reformed. There is also a girl. I think they appear in Prince Caspian.

I loved The Good Master.

MADELEINE!!

is this what you're offering us?

lol yes eustace not edmund!

Yes! Champagne and gin and tonic are now being served in the tea room. Please drop in!

I've been thinking about this one in the shower, & I reckon that we're looking in the wrong place with classic literature.
As someone pointed out earlier, the two Rainbow Magic girls are both onlies - and so is Mandy Hope from the Animal Ark books. In fact, come to think of it Mandy's family is a dead ringer for ours in lots of ways - only child, both parents self employed from home, excess of animals, we're just missing the helpful grandparents. I think the Secret Unicorn girl is also an only, though I'm not certain.
Just think, a whole generation of girls being subtly indoctrinated towards only children
The boy from the How to Train your Dragon books is also an only, I'm pretty sure, though his family is a bit less like ours.
BTW the girl who appears with Eustace is Jill from the Silver Chair.

me thinks 'tea room' is a slight mis-nomer

ooh, kirsty & rachel in the 'fairies' interminable series - i get them confused, but one of them doesn't have a brother

jill is in the silver chari, i think.. voyage of the dawn treader has a single cousin, but he's horrible & has progressive parents who let him call them by their first names

Neither of them has a brother, believe me, I know those damn books - thank goodness dd can now read

Emily in Emily of New Moon is an only, so is her best friend Ilse (LM Montgomery- who wrote Anne of Green Gables). Arthur in the Kevin Crossley Holland series that begins with The Seeing Stone. Lucy Boston children are nearly always only children. Also Ursula le Guin, Rumer Godden (The Story of Holly and Ivy, Mr McFaden's Halloween, Diddakoi- all have only children). Some Anne Fine and David Almond do too.

The cousin is Eustace, he reforms after being turned into a dragon, then comes back in the Silver Chair with Jill who is a schoolmate that he had previously bullied (wasted childhood alert).
Both the Princess and Curdie are also onlies
I like this game

kickassangel - 'Tis indeed a tea room although it was once described as a speakeasy. During the day there is a menu of teas (of all sorts), coffee, hot chocolate, muffins, cakes and home-made soup and rolls for lunch. But once the sun is over the yard arm ....

Tamsin in the Malcolm Saville books, I think. Or maybe Rissa.

ah, bocca, tea room by day, speakeasy by night? my kind of place. have to go now as promised dh i'd get in some chinese for dinner. (am in US, so a tad early for g&t, but may well have some later)

kickassangel - One of our regulars is on the west coast of Canada, so we are used to serving drinks and food at unusual hours. Drop by at any time!

What has happened to our regular Canadian?

She was in a few days ago, talking about Christmas presents given and received. Not sure whether we've seen her since.

Have we seen Daisy recently?

just had a quick chat with the dds.

They mentioned the main charatcer in the Animal Ark books. Jacky Daydream (J Wilson' s autobiography). Exchange by someone Magrs (dd1 has just read it). How to Write Badly by Anne Fine. Suitcase Kid (although step siblings are in it). Fat Boy Swim, a book I read last year about a teenage boy. STrange Incident of the dog in teh night time - he was an only, no?

been thinking about this. stories (whether books or films) which rely on a large number of children to make it work, have large families, particularly soaps. those which are different, have just one child. am thinking about 'clueless' and a few lindsey lohan films, which were about the main character, where other children would have been irrelevant.

often there are other children, but they don't feature much, like some of the ones metioned above.