Anonymous
Post 01/21/2024 21:01     Subject: Ramona Quimby
I still say “Jesus, Beezus” sometimes. Ramona and her family left an indelible mark. And for the PP who mentioned “Fifteen,” I think about that book surprisingly often! And I still love rereading all of Cleary’s books, even though I’m in my 50s!
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2024 21:00     Subject: Ramona Quimby
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t Ramona only 4 when she played at the playground outside the community center where Beezus took an art class? That struck me. Nobody could do that now.

We coddle our children so much


The difference between Ramona's Kindergarten, where she was working on writing her own name, and taking a nap, and playing outside, and her mom stopped walking her to school after showing her the way one time, and 2024 Kindergarten is startling.



+1. It is basically how my mom described her kindergarten in the mid-50s. She walked to school by herself, came home for lunch, etc. Of course her mother stayed home (and was very resentful of it, which is why my mom always worked). It was a different world altogether.

I happened to pick up the first Ramona book (where she is in kindergarten) to read to my kids just a few days ago, and my younger kid is in first grade so the kindergarten memories are fresh. Not sure my kids are picking up on the differences, but I sure am! I do walk them to school, and they also each had about 30 kids in their kindergarten classes, but they aren't going places by themselves and they don't have stay at home parents. On the less great "differences" side, the book is replete with outdated ideas like "only girls play with dolls or ribbons" and "only boys are interested in tools and naturally good at using them." In the scenes where Ramona chases Davy, onlookers talk about Davy being fast and going out for track, but not Ramona - because girls "didn't do sports" back then. Those differences are also quite striking to me, though again, not sure if my kids are noticing.


A major point of the book is pointing out how terrible those stereotypes are. Telling your child those stereotypes don't exist, isn't the way to fight them. Providing her with role models like Ramona who stand up to them is.

But if you're reading it without pointing them out to your kid and discussing them you're doing it wrong.


That may be a major point when a modern adult reads it, but it is taken for granted in the book. No one in the first one ever questions it. It is not in any way the “point” of the book itself.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2024 20:55     Subject: Ramona Quimby
Anonymous wrote:Love this thread. Have been revisiting some of my favorite characters with my 9 year old lately and thinking about how they influenced me. Especially Ramona, Harriet the Spy and Gilly Hopkins. I wonder how they would have turned out!


Harriet the Spy! When Ole Golly left…I felt that. “The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things…”. What a book!
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2024 20:45     Subject: Ramona Quimby
Beverly Cleary lived to age 104 and died in 2021! A great life.
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2024 20:29     Subject: Ramona Quimby
I think a lot of the books I read as a child in the 70s and a teen in the 80s had very middle class families

the Judy Blume books
Beverly Cleary's other books are wonderful too.
Paula Danzinger books were so good too.
Katherine Paterson
Anonymous
Post 01/21/2024 19:58     Subject: Ramona Quimby
My 9 yo daughter loves to both read and to be read aloud too and I chose the Ramona books with the updated illustrations. When Ramona puts on her “best dress” for kindergarten the illustration perfectly updates this scene with a little girl in a dress, biker shorts and sneakers!

We both enjoyed the series, and I enjoyed getting into Ramona’s world again.
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2024 13:23     Subject: Ramona Quimby
This brings it back... I loved Ramona and Beezus. Along with Lois Lowry's "Anastasia" books... anyone remember those?
Anonymous
Post 01/19/2024 06:32     Subject: Ramona Quimby
I was SO happy that my kids loved these books (and Judy Blume) as much as I did.

Pippi Longstocking was also a hit.

Revisiting the Little House books, not so much for any of us. Was not expecting that.
Anonymous
Post 01/18/2024 23:47     Subject: Ramona Quimby
Love this thread. Have been revisiting some of my favorite characters with my 9 year old lately and thinking about how they influenced me. Especially Ramona, Harriet the Spy and Gilly Hopkins. I wonder how they would have turned out!
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2024 16:12     Subject: Ramona Quimby
Anonymous wrote:
How do you think Ramona turned out as an adult?


I think about this too, but at the same time am grateful that her publisher hasn't turned out some zombie sequel series like "Ramona Q.: The Twentysomething Adventures."
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2024 16:10     Subject: Ramona Quimby
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t Ramona only 4 when she played at the playground outside the community center where Beezus took an art class? That struck me. Nobody could do that now.

We coddle our children so much


The difference between Ramona's Kindergarten, where she was working on writing her own name, and taking a nap, and playing outside, and her mom stopped walking her to school after showing her the way one time, and 2024 Kindergarten is startling.



+1. It is basically how my mom described her kindergarten in the mid-50s. She walked to school by herself, came home for lunch, etc. Of course her mother stayed home (and was very resentful of it, which is why my mom always worked). It was a different world altogether.

I happened to pick up the first Ramona book (where she is in kindergarten) to read to my kids just a few days ago, and my younger kid is in first grade so the kindergarten memories are fresh. Not sure my kids are picking up on the differences, but I sure am! I do walk them to school, and they also each had about 30 kids in their kindergarten classes, but they aren't going places by themselves and they don't have stay at home parents. On the less great "differences" side, the book is replete with outdated ideas like "only girls play with dolls or ribbons" and "only boys are interested in tools and naturally good at using them." In the scenes where Ramona chases Davy, onlookers talk about Davy being fast and going out for track, but not Ramona - because girls "didn't do sports" back then. Those differences are also quite striking to me, though again, not sure if my kids are noticing.


A major point of the book is pointing out how terrible those stereotypes are. Telling your child those stereotypes don't exist, isn't the way to fight them. Providing her with role models like Ramona who stand up to them is.

But if you're reading it without pointing them out to your kid and discussing them you're doing it wrong.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2024 16:05     Subject: Ramona Quimby
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t Ramona only 4 when she played at the playground outside the community center where Beezus took an art class? That struck me. Nobody could do that now.

We coddle our children so much


The difference between Ramona's Kindergarten, where she was working on writing her own name, and taking a nap, and playing outside, and her mom stopped walking her to school after showing her the way one time, and 2024 Kindergarten is startling.



+1. It is basically how my mom described her kindergarten in the mid-50s. She walked to school by herself, came home for lunch, etc. Of course her mother stayed home (and was very resentful of it, which is why my mom always worked). It was a different world altogether.

I happened to pick up the first Ramona book (where she is in kindergarten) to read to my kids just a few days ago, and my younger kid is in first grade so the kindergarten memories are fresh. Not sure my kids are picking up on the differences, but I sure am! I do walk them to school, and they also each had about 30 kids in their kindergarten classes, but they aren't going places by themselves and they don't have stay at home parents. On the less great "differences" side, the book is replete with outdated ideas like "only girls play with dolls or ribbons" and "only boys are interested in tools and naturally good at using them." In the scenes where Ramona chases Davy, onlookers talk about Davy being fast and going out for track, but not Ramona - because girls "didn't do sports" back then. Those differences are also quite striking to me, though again, not sure if my kids are noticing.


Those differences make good dinner time conversations!
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2024 15:43     Subject: Ramona Quimby
I love Ramona and I’ve been thinking about her a bit lately as I’m in a new job with a project manager named Ramona (never met one before) and someone whose last name begins with Q, and Q is his nickname. I always want to ask him if he turns the Q into a cat like Ramona does when she writes it, but I know he won’t get it.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2024 09:58     Subject: Re:Ramona Quimby
Awww, this thread is making me want to head to the library and get a Ramona book right now. I loved them ... and I thought they did a nice job with the movie.

Sadly, my kids did not love them as much as I did. I love the comments about Ramona's kindergarten experience vs. the modern day experience ... take us back!
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2024 09:51     Subject: Ramona Quimby
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t Ramona only 4 when she played at the playground outside the community center where Beezus took an art class? That struck me. Nobody could do that now.

We coddle our children so much


The difference between Ramona's Kindergarten, where she was working on writing her own name, and taking a nap, and playing outside, and her mom stopped walking her to school after showing her the way one time, and 2024 Kindergarten is startling.


For real. We live two houses away from the bus stop and are required to pick our kindergartener up every day (even though she has an older sibling on the bus). Paranoid people like the PP who is concerned someone will kidnap and rape her child have ruined the country for our children.


I am the pp. I am not paranoid. Do you not read the news? And no I am not ruining your children's childhood because my four year old isn't playing by herself in the playground. Why don't you fight the system if it is so important to you? Let others parent how we wish.





The rate of stranger abduction of children remains as exceedingly rare today as it was in the 1950s, poster.

Today as in the 1950s, the place children are most likely to be harmed both physically and psychologically is in the home - or in the care of persons trusted by the family, including extended family members and various in loco parentis guardians in a child's life such as Scout master, teacher, coach, pastor, neighbor, etc.

While I have nothing but sympathy for John Walsh and his family, his zealous mission to put the fear into all of America's parents after the horrific loss of his son did a huge disservice to America's kids, I think.

~ former prosecutor who is glad for the free range childhood she enjoyed in the 70s and 80s.