I think that book characters which people like or dislike express people's ideas of what is good or what is bad. People  associate themselves with characters and acquire their  philosophy and behavior. That's why it is important for children to read the right kind of books. If a person behaves honestly, bravely and nobly, it means that in his childhood he read the correct kind of books. Therefore I think that one's favourite book character is the model of a person one wants to be.

As for me personally, my favourite book character is Frodo Baggings, a hobbit from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. There are many reasons for that.

On the one hand, Frodo has always been a pleasant person - active, very curious for a hobbit, polite, energetic and soft-hearted. But when it appeared that the ring he got from his uncle Bilbo was a magic ring of power, he did what he must, though he was afraid and understood he could die. He just put the common benefit above his suffers. This is the position which many real heroes had, beginning with Ilya Muromets, who went out into the world to help people and to free Russia from enemies, and finishing with Men in Black who spend their lives solving inter-civilization problems or Neo, who wants to free all people from their sleep in glass tombs.