D.W. Read


 * "If you don't have a little sister, you probably think that it's cool or something. But D.W. is a different story."
 * &mdash; Arthur Read, "D.W.'s Imaginary Friend"

Dora Winifred Read, better known as D.W. is Arthur's younger sister, Baby Kate's older sister, and a middle child in her family. She was originally voiced by Michael Caloz, and is currently voiced by Robert Naylor. Unlike most other female characters, she has always been voiced by a male voice actor.

Profile

 * Name: (If in trouble) Dora Winifred Read


 * Alias: D.W.


 * Gender: Female


 * Birthday: March 1st
 * Age: 4, 5 (some episodes)


 * Parents: David Read (father), Jane Read (mother).


 * Siblings: Arthur Read (older brother), Kaitlyn Read (younger sister).


 * Grandparents: Thora Read (paternal grandmother), Grandpa Dave (maternal grandfather), Thora's mother (great-grandmother).

by Ogden Nash Brave Irene by William Steig Swamp Angel by Anne Isaacs The Girl Who Wore Snakes by Angela Johnson
 * Other: Jessica, Lucy (maternal aunts), Richard (Jessica's husband), Cora (cousin), Monique Read (cousin).
 * Likes: Mary Moo Cow, "Crazy Bus", Ponies, doing anything do annoy Arthur
 * Dislikes: When Arthur contradicts her fandom, being referred to by her real name
 * D.W.'s favourite books: The Adventures of Isabel

Appearance
D.W is an aardvark, like her brother. She wears a white long sleeved shirt that is under her pink and lavender dress and with her dress she wears a light pink pantyhose with turquoise Mary Janes and white panties. D.W also has many alternate outfits; her footsie pyjamas, pink frilly swimsuit, red polka dot dress, her Arthur outfit, gymnastic suit and many more. She has short brown hair that is up to her cheeks, plus she has bangs. When she was a baby, she originally had just clumps of hair, but in later seasons depicted her with a similar but shorter hairstyle.

Personality
D.W. is often annoying to Arthur (he considers her a pest) and sometimes takes pleasure in getting him in trouble, but deep down she truly loves her brother. D.W. gets along well with most of her friends, but often becomes very dramatic when things don't go her way and sometimes becomes too bossy. She is known for her many short-lived obsessions and temper tantrums, two of her longest-lived ones being the Mary Moo Cow Show and the "Crazy Bus" song, both of which annoy Arthur to no end. She also has an imaginary friend named Nadine, whom she plays with and confides her problems to when no one else is around. She hates her full name and has everyone call her D.W. for short.

D.W. has a fear of octopuses, and in D.W. All Fired Up she endured a short-lived fear of fire drills. She is a very picky eater and once had a profound hatred of spinach. She once had a snowball which was stolen from the fridge (Apparently by aliens) and frequently blames Arthur for its disappearance. She did this continually until Arthur tried to make her feel better by giving her what looked like her snowball, at which point D.W. admitted that he couldn't have taken it.

D.W. is also very gullible. She believes that anything she sees on TV that is enhanced to look good is good. This is suggested in the episode D.W. Goes to Washington where Arthur brings up the story when they went to "Santa's Igloo" where you shared a sundae with "Santa" and you had to buy a sundae to share it with the guy in the Santa costume. Also, she is frequently tricked by the Tibble Twins into doing silly things that get her in trouble, even though she has acknowledged many times that the Tibbles always lie.

Family
D.W lives with her family which consists of her father (David Read), her mother (Jane Read), her older brother (Arthur Read) and her baby sister (Baby Kate).


 * Arthur Read: Usually Arthur and D.W are seen fighting with each other, especially over their TV time and when she annoys him, but they also truly love and care for each other. A usual theme with Arthur and D.W, is Arthur usually forgets to play with D.W the games he promised her. It was noted that Arthur used to play with D.W all the time, until Arthur believed that D.W liked "baby stuff." She is naturally better than Arthur in many activities such as fishing, storytelling, and composing music, which made him very jealous of her.


 * Baby Kate Read: Baby Kate is D.W's younger sister who looks up to D.W. and does favors for her regularly with Pal, e.g. finding her lost sock.


 * Pal: D.W. and Arthur's dog pal are in a love-hate relationship. Pal likes D.W. and D.W. regularly dislikes him but sometimes treats him nicely.

Friends
D.W has many pre-school friends such as Emily, The Tibbles and James.


 * Emily: Emily is D.W's best friend but is often trying to compete with her and is jealous often. She is of French descent and has a French nanny named Marie-Helene.


 * Tommy and Timmy Tibble: The Tibbles are D.W's friends but often try to compete with her and pester her. They are also known to lie to D.W., often misleading her into doing foolish things for their own amusement. D.W. often finds herself at odds with them, but they usually make up later.


 * James MacDonald: James is a friend of D.W.'s who is very shy at times. D.W. tried to get him to kiss her once, thinking she would become a princess like Emily (who felt like a princess when she was kissed in Paris). He eventually did kiss her, but not much came of it. They are usually on pretty good terms with each other.


 * Lisa: Lisa is a girl in D.W.'s pre-school who may or may not be a friend of D.W. She once got D.W. into a very bad mood when she didn't invite D.W. to her birthday party, as D.W. was insulted when Emily was invited and not her. Very little is known about their current relationship.


 * Vicita Molina: Vicita and D.W. are next-door neighbors and occasionally play together. They are able to relate to each other easily because Vicita is only half a year younger than D.W. They generally get along and Vicita often looks up to D.W., but D.W. can occasionally be bossy and dislikes it when Vicita excels at games that she doesn't.


 * Binky Barnes: D.W. is friends with Arthur's classmate Binky. They became friends after D.W. ate a green potato chip and was tricked by Arthur into thinking they were poisoned. She told Binky this and they became friends after they decided to spend the last of their days together, only to learn later that their poisoning was nothing more than a prank. They remained friends and they have even done ballet together, and have remained on good terms since.

Trivia

 * D.W. hates her full name "Dora Winifred", and thus goes by her initials. She's greatly annoyed whenever her real name is said out loud.
 * D.W's has two favorite songs: The Mary Moo Cow theme song and Crazy Bus.
 * D.W is afraid of octopuses.
 * She loves unicorns and ponies.
 * D.W cannot read or tell time.
 * She cannot write, except for her name.
 * It is clearly known that D.W hates Bionic Bunny, but in the episode Arthur and the Crunch Cereal Contest, D.W is watching and laughing.
 * She hates the Love Ducks (A show Arthur likes) because it is a "baby show", which is ironic because Arthur tells her that The Mary Moo Cow Show is also a baby show.
 * D.W. has 35 episodes with her name in the title, with the most in season one (10). THX Tex2 Moo Can.
 * In early books, her name was 'Diane Winifred'
 * In Clarissa is Cracked, it is revealed that she closely resembles Grandma Thora.