Dunno what her thought process behind the adjectives were. :) I got the impression that she had the idea that successful stories were successful in part because the lead characters were spunky, vivid, and bright (er, in a personality sense, not necessarily intelligence), which makes them more accessible. Which I solidly disagree with; that's only one type of character.
What I was really assuming was that she was referring to stories for kids in particular, because I think it's incredibly obvious that adult stories usually run to less-genki-type protagonists (Madame Bovary, anyone?). However, kids can handle much more complex and/or less enthusiastic characters than that - Bridge to Terabithia, The Phantom Tollbooth, My Side of the Mountain, hell, any of Daniel Pinkwater's books.
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What I was really assuming was that she was referring to stories for kids in particular, because I think it's incredibly obvious that adult stories usually run to less-genki-type protagonists (Madame Bovary, anyone?). However, kids can handle much more complex and/or less enthusiastic characters than that - Bridge to Terabithia, The Phantom Tollbooth, My Side of the Mountain, hell, any of Daniel Pinkwater's books.