I’ve been listening to Ramona Quimby audiobooks in the car while running errands. It’s such a comfort to hear some of my favorite books! They’re read by Stockard Channing and she does an excellent job with different voices and inflections.

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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 On the less great "differences" side, the book is replete with outdated ideas like "only girls play with dolls or ribbons" and "only boys are interested in tools and naturally good at using them."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.

Omg stop telling parents theyre doing it wrong. And kids can pick up on nuance and differences themselves, too?

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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.

Yes!! I’ve been reading the books to my 7yo and he was confounded by all that. Really enjoys the books though.

Yes, BOING! And her sign, NOSMO KING!

I rarely hear the National Anthem without thinking about the dawnzer and how it gives a lee light.

Anonymous wrote:This brings it back... I loved Ramona and Beezus. Along with Lois Lowry's "Anastasia" books... anyone remember those?

I loved the Anastasia books and never hear anyone talk about them. Her distaste for the suburbs is one thing I remember. And overhearing about her “debacle” and assuming it was an expensive piece of silverware.

Loved rereading Ramona books with my kid. The special treat of getting a professional haircut and the excessive amount of shampoo. The stapled paper slippers. Cracking the raw egg on her head. So great.

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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?

Susan! Boing! Amazing how much I remember from reading that book nearly 50 years ago. Miss Binney. And Chev-ro-let

Yes, BOING! And her sign, NOSMO KING!

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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?

Susan! Boing! Amazing how much I remember from reading that book nearly 50 years ago. Miss Binney. And Chev-ro-let

Beverly Cleary was probably one of the first to write from the perspective of a child. Prior to her work, the closest text was Dick and Jane - See Dick run - that type of thing.
Ramona is such a great character with impulse control issues that kids could identify with.

The first book was written before the women's lib movement took off - the economic circumstances of the parents weren't entirely fleshed out but dad would come home from work and mom was a stay at home parent like Beaver Clever's parents. In the later books, the forces of middle class economics were introduced - mom had to start working again, dad had to retrain for a better job, the family needed to finance an addition to the house so the girls could have their own spaces, mom forgot to turn on the crock pot before leaving for her dental receptionist job and they had one tired evening with a miserable dinner. Those are the kinds of stories that ground a young person's realistic expectations of life.

My kids found Ramona fascinating and enjoyed her family life.

Then I read my kids Little House on the Prairie. Their eyes got so big at hearing how Laura and her sisters received a penny in their Xmas stockings and an orange. And how they savored that orange and treasured the penny. My kids were in disbelief so.... I think Ramona is more easy for modern children to understand.

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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.

Oh yes, you're right! Thank you.

My absolute favorite Beverly Cleary book was Ellen Tebbits. I can remember some of the details, like the monkey fabric she chooses to make a dress (shirt)? And hiding in the broom closet so the other girls wouldn’t see her long underwear.