Hitting Different

I can't tell you how many times I've read Anne of Green Gables. (My daughter has also now read it multiple times.) I started reading it when I was a young girl and have reread it many times (crying a bit each time). And yes, I've read the rest of the series at least twice more. It's such a beautiful story, full of fun and mischief and life lessons and the goodness of humanity.
But when I read it this month for my book club, I noticed it hit a bit different.
You see, at the beginning of the book, Anne is eleven. And, right now, I am living with an eleven-year-old girl.

Now, don't get me wrong. The two girls are quite a bit different--if only for the fact that they live in very different times and very different places. But an eleven-year-old girl is still an eleven-year-old girl. Full of imagination and sauciness and drama. Sometimes absent-minded and more interested in daydreaming than work. Still young enough to have innocence, but old enough to have seen a few things too.
The book follows Anne from eleven until she's sixteen, and in the story, time flies by. I know it will be the same for me watching my daughter. The first eleven years have done the same. The good news is, I know my child won't be starting to teach a school by herself at the ripe old age of sixteen. Ha!
Still, isn't it funny how you can view a character differently when she's the same age as your child? Or yourself? Do you ever compare book characters to real people (and/or yourself) in your life because of their age? How does that work out for you?