Nice Humans
As you have probably noticed in your own life, humans are complicated. They are usually not “all good” or “all bad.” Even nice humans can be moody or selfish from time to time. Finn’s mom, Marjorie McDougall is really nice but she seems to be always getting on Finn’s case and telling him that he is not working hard enough at school, or is daydreaming too much. Finn’s dad, David McDougall, is kinder and gentler but he spends so much time thinking about art that he sometimes doesn’t pay attention to the more mundane things in life. He once ate a pile of dog food left in the fridge for Riley (the golden retriever) because David thought it was fancy pâté or meat loaf! Here are a few details of some of the nice humans that you will meet in the Wullie stories.
FINNLEY McDOUGALL
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Finnley James Murray McDougall is one of the central characters in the Wullie stories. When you first meet him in Blackhope Scar he is eleven years old, living with his parents in a nice house in a quiet neighborhood in Seattle. Finn is white, with wavy blond hair. He spends a lot of time daydreaming and is not too interested in his schoolwork. He has no brothers or sisters but his best friend, Hadley Kobayashi, lives next door. Finn’s mom and dad are nice, although Finn thinks his mom is too strict.
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As you read the Wullie books you will follow along with Finn as he grows and matures in amazing ways. I am not going to give too much away here…
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Click here to learn more about Finnley in Twilight Cave​​​​​​​​​​​​
HADLEY KOBAYASHI
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Hadley Kobayashi lives next door to Finn in a quiet neighborhood in Seattle called Magnolia. At the start of Blackhope Scar she is eleven years old and, like Finn, in sixth grade at the Magnolia Academy of Arts and Science (MASS). Her dad is Nishi Kobayashi, a pugnacious Japanese-American businessman who is the Chief Executive Officer of Kobayashi Securities, a company that makes all sorts of cool gadgets and gizmos. Her mother is Riversong Kobayashi, a white American woman who married Nishi so that she wouldn’t have to work anymore. She changed her name from Debra to Riversong, and is, to put it charitably, a bit flaky.
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Hadley is really smart and is interested in science and spy-stuff. She is pretty, but is not into “girly clothes” or school gossip. She is teased by the “popular crowd” at school.
HUGH McDOUGALL
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Hugh McDougall is Finn’s Great Uncle. He is an eccentric Scottish gentleman who has spent his life exploring the world and searching to recover stolen Scottish historical artifacts and returning them to museums where they can be enjoyed by everyone.
At the start of Blackhope Scar he arrives in Seattle with Wullie to escape danger back in Scotland. If you want to learn about that danger and why they are running away you will need to read Book 0, Crabbit House, which is the prequel to the entire Wullie series of books. Hugh is a flamboyant adventurer and cuts a dashing and memorable figure as he sails through life.
Hugh first met Wullie when Hugh was just a wee lad of eight or nine back in the tiny hamlet of Mahaar in southwest Scotland. Wullie has accompanied Hugh on many adventures during Hugh’s life but we have only heard little bits about those so far. Here is a picture of Hugh, as a curious wee boy, looking for gomes under rocks near Mahaar with Wullie giving him advice from Hugh’s shoulder.
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I am not going to tell you more about Hugh here. He gets involved in many of the Wullie stories so you can learn more about him as you read those. Finn’s mother, Marjorie, thinks that Hugh is wa-a-a-ay too reckless and will be a bad influence on Finn… but I disagree.
DAVID McDOUGALL
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David McDougall is Finn’s dad. David grew up in Scotland but has spent most of his life in the USA. He works for the Seattle Art Museum as a curator. He travels the world looking at amazing new art to bring to Seattle. Because of this, Finn has traveled all over the world.
David is a bit of a day-dreamer himself, so perhaps that is where Finn gets that part of his character. David is kind and thoughtful and is not quite as strict in the way he is trying to raise Finn. Because of this, David and Marjorie sometimes have arguments.
Because of David’s connection to the art world, Finn gets drawn into some exciting adventures. When David is invited to evaluate the art collection of an eccentric Spanish sculptor, Baltazar Mendoza, who lives in the Segovia estates in the mountains near Barcelona all of Finn’s seventh grade class as the Magnolia Academy of Arts and Science (MAAS) are invited to go visit there on a summer vacation.
This is how Book 2, Twilight Cave, begins. You just won’t believe what happens after that…
MARJORIE McDOUGALL
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Marjorie McDougall is Finn’s mother. Marjorie is devoted to Finn, and to her husband, David. She worries a lot about both of them and gets on Finn’s case when she thinks he is not working hard enough at school… or is not keeping his room tidy enough… or when he loses his jacket… again!
Although Finn thinks she is too strict with him, Marjorie has a heart of gold and cares very much about keeping Finn safe. Marjorie also worries that Hadley’s flaky mother, Riversong Kobayashi, is not taking care of Hadley.
MARGARET & ELEANOR CRABTREE
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Margaret and Eleanor Crabtree’s life got started in an unusual way. They are African twins who were left in a basket inside St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. Their mother left a note of apology saying that she wanted the girls to have a better life that she could give them. The girls were fostered and then adopted by Alan and Elizabeth Crabtree, a middle-class Scottish couple who work at Edinburgh University. Elizabeth is a physician with an interest in tropical medicine. Alan is a professor of Scottish history.
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Maggie and Ellie were raised in a life of privilege and security spending the school year in Edinburgh and vacations at the Crabtree family estate in the Southwest of Scotland. Both girls are spirited and confident. Eleanor is perhaps the wilder of the two but they share a love for adventure and a disdain for patronizing grown-ups. When we first meet them (in the Book 0, Crabbit House story) they are eleven-years-old. Their secure and happy life is about to get turned upside down when they are kidnapped and held for ransom.
(Spoiler Alert!) They reappear as eighteen-year-olds in Book 5, Desolation Moor…
MORE ABOUT FINNLEY
IN TWILIGHT CAVE
In Twilight Cave, Finn learns more about gome life than he ever imagined. He gets captured by wicked gomes in a Spanish cave system and is taken to Barcelunda where he is fed drugs and poisons to prepare him to be turned to stone to become a Vas Animi. When Wullie’s lifewarmth keeps Finn alive after being petrified Finn begins to learn how to function in this strange, motionless, rocky state. Finn worries that if he falls asleep his lifewarmth will go out but it turns out that the opposite is true. If Finn worries and gets tired then his lifewarmth flickers and fades but if he rests and keeps a positive attitude then his lifewarmth grows stronger.
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Finn has to concentrate hard to use any of his senses and finds that he can only use one at a time. His sense of hearing is the easiest to use but if he wants to see who is speaking he needs to “turn off” his ears and focus all his concentration on his eyes. Everything seems blurry as if he is seeing through a grit-covered dirty window. He can tune into his skin to detect pressure and movement, but neither taste nor smell work at all because he can’t bring anything to his mouth, and can’t move his lungs to sniff anything. Although Finn does not enjoy being petrified, he does like the fact that he can feel no pain and that he never gets seasick when he is petrified.