Who Is Hope?

Hope Stevens was born on the 29th November 2014, she is eight years old and currently resides at 24 Greengrass Lane in Dartford. She is a Year 4 student at Dartford Primary School where her favourite subject is Geography and she likes spending time with her friends in the school’s garden. Hope also enjoys forest school, she likes to read and colour when she’s at home, and her Mum is her favourite person. Hope is an only child, and she enjoys any chance she can get to have an adventure!

During her time in the forest, Hope meets lots of wonderful friends who make the forest cleaner and more enchanting for those who live inside it, and she learns how important it is to take care of the nature around her. As she enters the forest, Hope is a scared, naive little girl who doesn’t have the strength to make change, but as she meets Grimble, Petal and the fairies, they bring their strengths together to defeat the Evil Wizard, transform Grogette back into the beautiful fairy she used to be and turn the forest back into a wonderful place filled with happiness and nature! Through this journey, Hope comes back into her own world and is strong enough to stand up for what she believes in, and she later gets chosen to become a part of her school's student council and she is constantly coming up with ideas that help make the school greener. Recently she started a gardening club with her friends and her teacher, Ms Johnson, to help other kids understand the importance of nature whilst growing some lovely food they can take home to their families! Hope is a symbol for change and her experience in the forest created a positive change in her and now she has the courage to continue this change into her world!

Hope’s star sign is Sagittarius which she shares many traits with, mainly the fact that she is very optimistic. Hope is constantly happy throughout the piece, especially when she is travelling through the forest, but will only get torn down when something particularly bad happens, like seeing what the Wizard is doing to the environment. She travels to school by skipping and will always get distracted by a flower or insect or some kind, like others who share the same star sign. Hope is also very fair - minded and honest, as she believes that the Wizard deserves a second chance, even after everything he did to the forest. She is a firm believer that everyone should get another chance no matter what, even the girls that always kicked the flowers in the flower beds, she’s teaching them how to love the flowers and not keep destroying them. Also, Hope is very intellectual and is able to retain all the information she learns during her journey through the forest, like the facts Grimble tells her about the flowers. She also knows quite a bit of information already, as she was taught in school that the trees are important for paper, food and water as well as making houses, which she later tells the Wizard to convince him to change his ways. Hope is very smart and a great listener, she knows how important these facts are and she shares them with her classmates to help make a positive change in their school.

Relationships

Hope shares a very strong bond with Grimble as he is the person that informs her about the forest, and he teaches her many important things about the trees, flowers and the animals that are currently living there. He takes her to meet so many wonderful characters that teaches Hope important things about courage, keeping positive and being open to change, and when she first meets Grimble, Hope is fascinated by his garden and all the different types of flowers there are, he also tells her about why the animals are important to the keeping the plants alive. Hope trusts Grimble and she wants to do whatever it takes to get his garden back after witnessing it falling apart, and both of them are ecstatic when the Wizard is finally convinced.

Hope also has a very close relationship with Petal. She is fascinated by her when they first meet as she’s never seen a flower so big and bold, and she finds it very intriguing that there is a mother to the flowers in the garden. When Hope see’s Petal getting sprayed by Grogette, she’s very sad when she comes back from hiding and she’s Petal all covered in silly string, this is the turning point where Hope knows that she can help make change. Hope is very sad to say goodbye to Petal as she loves her flowers and wants to visit again one day once they’ve been restored.

Hope doesn’t meet the fairies until towards the end of the show and they put a spell on her to give her the courage and confidence she needs not just to defeat the Evil Wizard, but to keep this up as she makes her journey home so she can make an impact in the human world as well. Hope gets upset when she sees the fairies and Petal collapse on the floor but is very thankful when her and Grimble are able to wake them as they are a crucial part of what they need to defeat the Wizard. When she says goodbye to the fairies, Hope is so happy to see them reunited with their sister.

As for Grogeroth and Grogette, Hope enters their lair for the first time with more confidence than when she entered the forest, but she is still not strong enough to defeat the Wizard and make him see that what they are doing is wrong. She is very scared of Grogette and is angry at her for spraying Petal and ruining the flowers. She wants to show her that the flowers can be beautiful if you appreciate them for what they are. Hope’s very disappointed that this doesn’t work out the first time but she’s very relieved when the Wizard decides to change, and she ends up feeling sorry for him.

Character questions

What is your full name?

Hope Stevens.

Do you have a nickname or a pet name?

My name is short already, you couldn’t make it any smaller!

What do you like about your name?

Well, it’s quite happy which I like, it shows me!

What is your age?

I’m eight years old.

How does it relate to you?

I like being eight, I enjoy school and playing with my friends like every child should be able to!

What is your place in your family?

I don’t have any brothers or sisters so it’s just me and mummy.

Where do you live?

I live in a house in Dartford.

Do you consider it a home? Why?

I love it! I never want to move from my house and I don’t want to be away from all of my friends and family. I am very happy here and I don’t want to stop being happy.

Energy?

I have plenty of it, my mum says I bounce off of the walls, whatever that means!

Biggest fear/insecurity?

I don’t like the dark, especially at night, I have a night light by my bed that I keep on every night! One time the lights went out at home and it was the worst day ever, I was so scared!

Worst thing you’ve ever done?

I was playing in the garden and I accidently broke my mum's favourite vase. She was very cross, her face was a tomato!

Best thing you’ve ever done?

I wanted to set up a gardening club at school, I told my teacher and she helped me make it, and now we have a vegetable patch and lots of flowers in the playground!

Which season best represents you?

Summer, I love the flowers and the birds and I don’t like it when they hide away in the winter.

Situations in your life that you find boring?

Maths is boring, I don’t see why we need to learn it anyway.

Preferred dish, drink, colour, time of day?

Dish: When mummy cooks the curly pasta.

Drink: I love Ribena, nanny gives it to me all the time!

Colour: Yellow

Time Of Day: I like lunchtime.

Honest person or good liar?

Lying is bad, you have to tell the truth if you want to keep your friends.

Which people frustrate you?

People who lie or are rude.

Do you talk to yourself when alone?

Not really, I’m never alone and whenever I am I’m reading.

What would you change about life/the world if you could?

I want there to be SO many trees and flowers in the world, and no more rubbish on the floor so it doesn’t upset the animals.

Spontaneous/adventurous?

I love an adventure!

How can you tell if someone is a friend or an enemy?

By how nice they are and how they treat the world around them.

What angers you?

When people drop their rubbish, or the girls at school that pull the flowers out of the earth, it’s not nice!

What relaxes you?

I love to read and colour in my animal colouring book.

Who do you look up to/admire?

My mummy! She’s so lovely and I want to do whatever I can to make her happy. She works really hard and I want to be like her when I grow up!

Favourite clothes to wear?

I love my sparkly bag that I have for school because I love glitter and it’s even got Mickey Mouse ears on it!

If you were a character, who would you be?

I want to be a Disney princess, I like Belle in her yellow dress, doesn’t she look really pretty?