How do you explain character to a child?

A character is someone in a story who does things, talks, and feels. You can ask your child who is in the story, what those characters want, and how they act to help them notice character.

What is the difference between a character and a real person?

A character is made up by an author, even if it is based on a real person. Real people live in the real world, while characters live only in stories, plays, movies, or poems.

What is a main character in a story?

A main character is the character the story focuses on the most. Readers usually see the most events, thoughts, and changes through this character, even though other characters are also important.

How can I help my child analyze a character?

You can ask questions like: What does the character want? What problems do they face? How do they act toward others? Does the character change from the beginning to the end? These questions guide your child to look past surface details and think more deeply about character.

What Is a Character? Definition and Examples

Character explained for kids

A character is someone in a story. It can be a person, an animal, or even a talking object. Characters do things, feel things, and talk to each other. When you read, you can imagine what each character looks like and how they act!

Examples of character

Example 1 (younger readers):

In a simple story about a lost puppy, the puppy is a character. The child who finds the puppy is another character. If the puppy meets a friendly cat, that cat is also a character. Each character helps the story happen by what they do and say.

Example 2 (older readers):

In a mystery novel, there might be a detective, a suspect, a neighbor, and a witness. The detective is often the main character, the one the story follows most closely. The suspect, neighbor, and witness are supporting characters, who still matter because their actions and choices affect what the detective discovers and how the mystery is solved.

Going deeper with character

As your child reads more complex texts, character is not just who is in the story, but also what those characters are like inside. Readers pay attention to a character's traits, such as being kind, stubborn, brave, or dishonest, and how those traits show up in actions and dialogue (what the character says).

Older students also look at how characters change over time. A character might start out shy and become more confident, or begin selfish and learn to be generous. Tracking this change helps readers understand the theme, which is the deeper message of the story.

In advanced reading and language arts, students may compare characters across different texts, notice common character types, and analyze how an author uses character to create conflict and even irony, such as when a character's words do not match what is really true.

Common mistakes about character

Mistake: Thinking only people can be characters.
Correction: Animals, creatures, or even objects can be characters if they take part in the story's action, think, speak, or have feelings.
Mistake: Believing the main character is always the "good guy."
Correction: The main character is the one the story focuses on most, but that character can be kind, cruel, confused, or even the villain.
Mistake: Describing a character only by appearance, like hair color or height.
Correction: Strong character understanding includes inner traits (such as brave or jealous), motivations (reasons for actions), and how the character changes, not just how they look.

How character shows up in everyday life

Character is similar to the people your child knows in real life. Friends at school, family members at home, and people in the community all have traits, habits, and ways of speaking that make them who they are. When your child notices how a classmate is helpful or how a coach is strict, they are already thinking about character, just like in a story.

Related terms to explore

To better understand character in stories, it can help to read about these related ideas:

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What is a character?