Book 5 of 8 ( )

Loved revisiting this old favorite, adored it as much as I did way back when I was seven.

There’s such a simplicity to Beverly Cleary’s writing yet it conveys so much truth and heart and makes me laugh, too. Moment after moment this brought back my own childhood, things I felt and experienced were so identifiable in Ramona and her big sister Beezus.

There’s nothing all that big about the plot which may not work for every reader but that’s what makes it so real and relatable for me, it’s the everyday stuff, their family not having a lot of money to spare, forgetting to plug in the slow-cooker, heartbreak over a haircut, getting into scrapes, worrying when your parents argue, and longing to indulge in little kid activities even though you know you’re supposed to be more grown up than that.

Ramona and her mother offers up plenty of fun moments like the situation where Ramona feels so cozy in her pajamas that it leads to an error in judgment but this book is also a heart-tugger as Ramona aches to be as close to her mother as her sister is, the closing moments, how a rash decision Ramona makes is handled, it epitomizes poignant and feel-good. ( )

The boys didn't enjoy this one as much as the previous Ramonas. Ramona is getting older (too old for my 4 year old to appreciate, I think), and the concerns are getting more cerebral, less concrete. More, does my mother love me as much as my big sister, and less, oh no, Ramona's messed up again, and it didn't keep the boys' attention. ( )

Ramona, now 7 1/2, worries that her mother doesn’t much love her. It seems that her older sister, Beezus, is “her mother’s daughter”, or at least so Ramona hears some folks tell her mother. Her parents have secretive discussions at night, and so forth, and Ramona figures it revolves around what to do about her.

But, it as is the case in earlier books, we find that small children don’t always understand the nuances of adult speech patterns, nor of life in general, quite clearly. Ramona wants to be her mother’s little rabbit, so she twitches her nose a lot. People think she has medical issues.

But, some good things happen. Beezus wants to have a haircut like Dorothy Hammill's (Dorothy isn't named, but those of us around in the late 70s know exactly who is being tagged as "that skater"). She saves up her allowance to pay for one. But it comes out all teased and poofy, more like Dolly Parton, totally inappropriate for a 7th grader. Ramona gets a “pixie” cut and is told by one an all how “adorable” she is. She loves being "adorable". Who wouldn't?

Whatever, it was fun. My Ramona is only 3 1/2-months old, but adorable. My Anderson is 7 1/2, and appears to be much like Ramona in the book in many ways, creative, fanciful, but not always getting the adult approaches to things. Some of us think he's adorable as well.
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Everyone always says that Beezus is her mother's girl, that her mother couldn't get along without her. Why doesn't anyone say that about Ramona? What will it take for her to be called "her mother's girl?"

Another solidly enjoyable entry in the Ramona series. I find that the episodic nature of these means that I have trouble remembering which anecdote belongs to which book -- if, as in the current case, I'm listening to the whole series without taking a lot of breaks between books, sometimes they start to blend together. ( )