Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

Ramona Quimby explores polyamory

Ramona Quimby gets a degree in History of Art

Ramona Quimby has a baby and has decided to let it choose it's gender as it gets older

Why Ramona Quimby is an anti-vaxxer

Ramona Quimby supports Trump for president

Ramona Quimby Is Now Vegan

Do you think she and Susan finally got together?

My 4 year old has started listening to “Beezus and Ramona” as an audiobook. (Stockard Channing narrates— she is fantastic.) Each chapter is much like a short story, and my daughter often listens to the same chapters over and over again. (The incident with Ribsy getting stuck in the bathroom is a favorite.)

I was struck how true to life the depictions of the characters and the family dynamics still are. My daughter is so enthralled because she recognizes this as well, even at a young age. She’s also funnily a lot like Ramona herself— pretty chaotic, strong-willed, sometimes exasperating. I could see her doing pretty much every single thing Ramona does that drives Beezus so nuts. But also she’s also incredibly clever, independent, loving, loyal, and absolutely hilarious. It’s actually helped me see more things from my child’s perspective. I often think, well, Mother is very practically-minded and chill about all this, I can do that too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!

Harriet the Spy AND the sequel, The Long Secret. That was also great, the story of Harriet's friend, Mary Ellen. In some ways I liked it more. Both had the author's wonderful occasional illustrations throughout.

It was Beth Ellen, not Mary Ellen. And I agree, I think it was actually a better, more complex book.

Anonymous wrote:I loved the Ramona books as a kid and read them over and over, so read them to my kids who HATED them. Declared Ramona a stupid brat that they'd never be friends with and so on.

I still like the stories as quick way of revisiting childhood

I hated Ramona, when I was growing up. I had an "annoying" younger brother at the time, so just couldn't handle reading about another one just like him.
But loved the Henry Huggins books and Emily's Runaway Imagination, a stand alone book, also by Cleary. Still have my well worn copies.
She has such a skill at writing child characters.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

Ramona Quimby explores polyamory

Ramona Quimby gets a degree in History of Art

Ramona Quimby has a baby and has decided to let it choose it's gender as it gets older

Why Ramona Quimby is an anti-vaxxer

Ramona Quimby supports Trump for president

Ramona Quimby Is Now Vegan

Do you think she and Susan finally got together?

Growing up, I loved Cleary's books, especially all the Ramona stories. My husband, whose librarian mom had introduced him to Henry and Ribsy, only knew Ramona as a peripheral character in those books, but he got to know her better as we read all the books aloud to our kids. They also became big Cleary fans. Cleary's memoirs, A Girl from Yamhill and On My Own Two Feet, are excellent; she had a sad childhood, but moved forward to create these wonderful stories and a happy life for herself. BTW, if you're ever in Portland, Oregon, you can visit the Beverly Cleary Garden in Grant Park, with sculptures of Ramona, Henry and Ribsy.

I loved the Ramona books as a kid and read them over and over, so read them to my kids who HATED them. Declared Ramona a stupid brat that they'd never be friends with and so on.

I still like the stories as quick way of revisiting childhood

My mom just gave my 3rd and 5th grader a Beverly Cleary set that Costco had and we just finished Beezus and Ramona with Ramona as a 4 year old. They loved it and I loved it again. My 3rd grader teacher read me many of these books some 42 years ago. My 8 year reminds me of Ramona and my 5th grader of Beezus. My daughters have a similar sister relationship. I'm hoping they want to read them all. I'm going to read them even if the kids lose interest, I hope they won't. This thread also makes me want to read Fifteen again.

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.

And in contrast, I can remember my mother arguing with my brother's first grade teacher that his last name was too long to expect a little boy to be able to spell, and that expecting "Thomas" on every paper instead of "Tom" was also a little too much writing to expect of such a young child.

Something to consider when choosing baby names, I suppose. Let all the parents on the expecting board know that "Ian" and "Ann" are where it's at.

I also loved the Ramona Quimby mini series with Sarah Polley - I grew up in Canada so I'm not sure if it aired or was popular in the states, but we used to go to the main branch of the library in my city and take it out on VHS in the 90s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramona_(1988_TV_series)

I can't wait my daughter to be old enough to read Ramona and looking forward to revisiting them!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

Ramona Quimby explores polyamory

Ramona Quimby gets a degree in History of Art

Ramona Quimby has a baby and has decided to let it choose it's gender as it gets older

Why Ramona Quimby is an anti-vaxxer

Ramona Quimby supports Trump for president

Ramona Quimby Is Now Vegan

No publisher would be that stupid to put "supports Trump for president" as a Title. None zero. Unless they want to sell only $5 copies.

Ramona Quimby comes out as transgender. Now she is Richard Quimby

Anonymous wrote:

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."

Ramona Quimby explores polyamory

Ramona Quimby gets a degree in History of Art

Ramona Quimby has a baby and has decided to let it choose it's gender as it gets older

Why Ramona Quimby is an anti-vaxxer

Ramona Quimby supports Trump for president

Ramona Quimby Is Now Vegan

Anonymous wrote:

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!

Harriet the Spy AND the sequel, The Long Secret. That was also great, the story of Harriet's friend, Mary Ellen. In some ways I liked it more. Both had the author's wonderful occasional illustrations throughout.

I also loved Harriet the Spy and The Great Gilly Hopkins!