Ramona Quimby, Age 8

The Ramona books are super sweet without being saccharine. I love that Ramona is different and a little bit difficult, but her family never discourages her from being herself.

This novel features one of my favorite scenes in the entire series when third-grader Ramona tries to get in on a classroom trend by cracking a hard-boiled egg on her forehead. She asks her mom to put an egg in her lunch, and her mother misunderstands and gives her a raw egg instead. The result is funny but also a memorable lesson in what happens when you mindlessly follow the pack.

As a boy growing up, I didn’t read a lot of books with girl leads. After all, they had cooties, and I might get them just reading about girls. However, my Mom convinced me to read this book. It was the first time I laughed out loud reading something.

Ramona is a very mischievous kid but with a big heart.  She knows what she’s supposed to do but something usually messes it up…and by “something” I mean her.