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I'm writing a MG fantasy about an 11-year-old girl who encounters a Bogle (a mischievous, shape-shifting magical creature) and is out to stop it running wild in her new hometown, while dealing with the fact that the Bogle exists (she's very logical and firmly un-superstitious, so that the discovery that it's real is a major blow to her world-view). A friend of mine who beta-read the first chapter wondered if she had a mild case of Asperger's, and although I hadn't thought of that while writing her, I was interested enough in his remark that I thought I'd ask about it here.
The MC is a bright and serious girl, with a strong dedication to orderliness (one reason why she's clashing with the Bogle, who's keen on chaos and disorder) and extremely logical. Until she meets the Bogle, she has a firm "Ghosts and other mythical creatures don't exist" outlook (at one point, quoting Sherlock Holmes' remark from "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire", "No ghosts need apply" - she's a big Sherlock Holmes fan and would like to be a detective); indeed, when she first encounters signs of the Bogle's activity, she's certain that there's a mundane, non-magical reason for them (most likely a hoaxer inspired by the Bogle legend) - until she comes face to face with it and sees it in action.
She's solitary by nature - has no friends her age until she moves to the town where the story's set, never felt any need to seek out friends in her old home town (the closest she had to a friend there was the school librarian at her elementary school, whom she'd assist as a volunteer - she was particularly keen on shelving because every book has its exact place, determined by alphabetical order for the fiction books, the Dewey Decimal System for non-fiction books - and I suspect if she caught any of her classmates trying to stuff a book back in the wrong place, she'd treat them to a very disapproving epic-level stare). In her new town, she does make friends of a sort with two children her age - a boy whom she teams up with in trying to catch the Bogle and a girl whom the Bogle's singling out, playing most of its pranks on her, and who asks the MC for help in figuring out who's been tormenting her - but she thinks of them for nearly all the book as her partner and her client respectively, rather than as friends. (That changes by the end of the story.)
She's no time for small talk, preferring to immediately get to the subject she wants to discuss with whoever she's speaking with.
Her first name's Jennifer, and she always thinks of herself as "Jennifer" rather than any shortened versions like "Jenny". (She'll accept you calling her "Jenny", though, without "correcting" you, to avoid wasting time.)
She always (unless the situation mandates against it - say, if it's PE class) wears a buttoned and collared shirt and a sweater over it - the color of the sweater depending on which day of the week it is (that is, she always wears a red sweater on Tuesday, a blue sweater on Thursday, a green sweater on Friday, etc.); her family joke that you can tell which day of the week it is just by looking at her sweater, without needing to check the calendar. (The school in her new town has a school uniform which includes a green sweater every day - she feels a bit uncomfortable wearing green sweaters when it's not Friday, though since her first day there takes place after she's met the Bogle and has set herself the goal of catching it, she sees it as a minor matter.)
The MC is a bright and serious girl, with a strong dedication to orderliness (one reason why she's clashing with the Bogle, who's keen on chaos and disorder) and extremely logical. Until she meets the Bogle, she has a firm "Ghosts and other mythical creatures don't exist" outlook (at one point, quoting Sherlock Holmes' remark from "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire", "No ghosts need apply" - she's a big Sherlock Holmes fan and would like to be a detective); indeed, when she first encounters signs of the Bogle's activity, she's certain that there's a mundane, non-magical reason for them (most likely a hoaxer inspired by the Bogle legend) - until she comes face to face with it and sees it in action.
She's solitary by nature - has no friends her age until she moves to the town where the story's set, never felt any need to seek out friends in her old home town (the closest she had to a friend there was the school librarian at her elementary school, whom she'd assist as a volunteer - she was particularly keen on shelving because every book has its exact place, determined by alphabetical order for the fiction books, the Dewey Decimal System for non-fiction books - and I suspect if she caught any of her classmates trying to stuff a book back in the wrong place, she'd treat them to a very disapproving epic-level stare). In her new town, she does make friends of a sort with two children her age - a boy whom she teams up with in trying to catch the Bogle and a girl whom the Bogle's singling out, playing most of its pranks on her, and who asks the MC for help in figuring out who's been tormenting her - but she thinks of them for nearly all the book as her partner and her client respectively, rather than as friends. (That changes by the end of the story.)
She's no time for small talk, preferring to immediately get to the subject she wants to discuss with whoever she's speaking with.
Her first name's Jennifer, and she always thinks of herself as "Jennifer" rather than any shortened versions like "Jenny". (She'll accept you calling her "Jenny", though, without "correcting" you, to avoid wasting time.)
She always (unless the situation mandates against it - say, if it's PE class) wears a buttoned and collared shirt and a sweater over it - the color of the sweater depending on which day of the week it is (that is, she always wears a red sweater on Tuesday, a blue sweater on Thursday, a green sweater on Friday, etc.); her family joke that you can tell which day of the week it is just by looking at her sweater, without needing to check the calendar. (The school in her new town has a school uniform which includes a green sweater every day - she feels a bit uncomfortable wearing green sweaters when it's not Friday, though since her first day there takes place after she's met the Bogle and has set herself the goal of catching it, she sees it as a minor matter.)
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