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.

Well, we're now at the fourth Ramona book. Ramona is in second grade. Her father loses his job, so her mother upgrades her part-time job into a full-time one. Thus, the person who is home to receive Ramona after school is her father. That could be nice, getting more "pop" time. But her father is crabby because he's out of work and isn't having much luck finding a new job. Then too, her mother is stressed about money, older sister, Beezus is in 7th grade and beginning to have "adolescent girl" problems, and the family cat, Picky-picky is in a twit because he's been forced to do with cheap cat food.

So, Ramona tries to make things more cheery, but isn't always successful. One "improvement" is to get her father to give up smoking—so he won't have his lungs turn black and die on them—but that only makes him all the more crabby. Well, life goes on and things work out and we have an adorable scene of one of those old fashioned Christmas Pageants that were popular in olden times when people went to church and celebrated such things as the birth of a savior in a stable.

I have a feeling I'll be done with the Ramona books long before my Ramona, my 2½-month-old granddaughter grows up enough to begin resembling Ramona in the book. Fortunately, I have a 7-year old grandson, Anderson, who like Ramona (in the book), can be a handful at times, albeit a creative one.

Dear Mr. Henshaw was one of the first chapter books that I remember reading. I was captivated by the story and re-read the book numerous times. The story dives into heavy situations, such as divorce, bullying, and moving to a new school. I loved that the main character would write to his favorite author. I think that I would have students do the same!  Because this book is for older readers, I would ask them to decipher the setting and draw or write about it. I would love to incorporate this book into a science or stem lesson. Just like in the story, I would ask students to design their own lunchbox alarm.

 

Guided Reading - Q

Lexile - 910L

DRA - 40

AR - 4.9

I decided to give this book a reread. I loved it growing up and found that even reading it as an adult, I loved it just as much.

Before this, I read Ramona the Pest, in which Ramona is in kindergarten, so it was interesting to see how much Ramona has grown up between book 2 and book 8. This one focuses much more on Ramona being responsible.

I really enjoyed this book. There are a lot of silly situations and funny anecdotes. I also liked Ramona and Daisy's friendship in the story. It was a great example of female friendship without all of the feuding that often occurs in book about girls. Even Susan and Ramona's relationship developed, which was nice to see.

I can't wait to go back and read some of the other Ramona books, although it is bittersweet for me to watch Ramona grown up.

I loved Beverly Cleary's books growing up, especially the ones about Ramona. I recently found a few copies of my old books and thought I'd read them now that I'm an adult.

I love this one just as much as I did when I was a kid. It is easy to relate to Ramona, even as an adult. She doesn't want to be a pest and she doesn't mean to get into trouble. I really enjoy how Cleary shows Ramona's side of things and how differently situations happen from her perspective.

While some of the things in this book are a bit outdated, it is still an awesome book that is funny, heartwarming, and relatable.

I love, love, love these books.