Eddie Ryland

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Eddie Ryland is Samantha Parkington's bothersome neighbor.

Facts

• Name: Eddie Ryland
• First Appearance: Meet Samantha

Personality

Eddie is a boy about Samantha's age that enjoys picking on and teasing her. He is described as round faced with curly hair. His tricks are mostly harmless, but quite mean spirited towards Samantha. He is possibly from a well-to-do family, as he lives in the same neightborhood and his family can afford hired help; however, Eddie attends public school. He may be poor at math. He lives with his mother and father; he appears to be an only child. Despite his familiy's per

Despite his mocking and meanness, Samantha mostly knows how to handle him using threats.

In The Books

Meet Samantha: An American Girl

Eddie is the first voice heard in the series; he yells at Samantha and causes her to tumble out of the tree. He then mocks and teases her, and only leaves when Samantha threatens to dump his beetle collection into the church collection plate. He is seen again when Gardner Edwards comes out to take Samantha for a ride in the automobile, as he was sitting in the car but scrambles out. He tells Samantha she looks dumb and she ignores him. He then yells that a girl her age is coming and Samantha calls him a liar. She does not believe him until she meets Nellie O'Malley.

When the two girls first meet, Eddie interupts them and says he sees them, calling them ugly. He then threatens to tell on them--most likely to his parents, as Nellie is not working. Samantha stops him by saying she'll take his pocketknife and cram it full of taffy. Eddie stops in his tracks, stares, covers his back pocket where the knife is, backs away, and runs off.

Later, after going to see what happened to Jessie after her leaving, Samantha goes next door to find Nellie. Nellie is nowhere to be seen, and Eddie is there playing with gum by taking it out of his mouth in long strings and stuffing it back. He says he knows something Samantha doesn't, looking pleased with himself. Samantha waits and Eddie says that Nellie is going away because she's sick and his mother doesn't think she's strong enough to work properly; next time they'll get an immigrant woman who will last.

Samantha shoves Eddie's gum into his hair and runs off, leaving him howling and trying to get the gum out of his hair.