Favorite Fictional Character (9)

This week's favourite character is one I've known for a long time. More than 20 years, actually. Her name is Ramona Geraldine Quimby, and if you haven't yet met her, you don't know what fun you're missing.

Ramona is a character in a series of children's books by Beverly Cleary. She made her first appearance in the 1950s as the pesky younger sister of Beezus Quimby in the books about Beezus's friend, Henry Huggins. Later, Cleary wrote a whole series based around Ramona and her immediate family. Those books (in order) are:

Beezus and Ramona
Ramona the Pest
Ramona the Brave
Ramona and Her Father
Ramona and Her Mother
Ramona Quimby, Age 8
Ramona Forever
Ramona's World

(You can actually buy the whole series as a set, which is pretty darn cool. This might have to go on my wish list!)

Ramona grows up throughout the series. She starts out at age 4 in the first book and turns 10 in the last one. I read most of these books when I was around 7 or 8, so I could really relate to the scrapes that Ramona got herself into and how she felt about what was going on around her.

A TV series based on the books was made in the late 1980s, starring Sarah Polley in the title role. I always thought these stories would make a cute movie, and I guess someone else thought the same thing. In searching for links for this post, I found out that there will be a movie called Ramona and Beezus, due for release in 2010. Hopefully, this will lead more kids to these delightful books.

The Favorite Fictional Character meme was started by Ryan G. at Wordsmithonia.