Review #21: Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary

Title: Cleary, Beverly. Ramona Quimby, Age 8. HarperCollins. 2006. 179 pages. Tr. $14.49. ISBN 978-0-688-00477-4
Genre: Fiction
Reading Level/Interest Level: 5.3 / Grades 3-6
Awards: Newbery Honor 1982, ALA Notable Children’s Books 1995
Series: Ramona Quimby

·         Book 1: Beezus and Ramona

·         Book 2: Ramona and Her Father

·         Book 3: Ramona and Her Mother

·         Book 4:Ramona Forever

·         Book 5: Ramona Quimby, Age 8

·         Book 6: Ramona’s World

·         Book 7: Ramona the Brave

·         Book 8: Ramona the Pest

Similar Titles: Judy Moody by Megan McDonald, Clementine by Sara Pennypacker, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

When Ramona gets to ride the bus and go to a new school, she feels like the big kid on campus, until self-doubt creeps in, a struggle all children her age contend with. When a would-be bully steals the special pink eraser her father gives her on the bus, Ramona is at a loss, but once she finds the same boy in her class and retrieves her eraser she starts to think that maybe he’s not so bad and this third grade thing might be a good thing. That is until a series of events leads her to abject humiliation and a misunderstanding that leads her to believe that her new teacher, whom she very much wants to impress, thinks she is a show off and nothing but trouble.

Dejected and having to deal with the annoying Norma Jean after school, Ramona explores all the complexities of being 8 in such a convincing manner that the reader, even if they aren’t 8 years old, will find themselves back when they were. Through sibling squabbles, more drama at school, and the minor struggles of her middle class family as her father goes back to school to become a teacher, Ramona finds her way through to a happy ending with the help of her family and friends, proving that maybe the third grade really won’t be so bad, after all.

I read this book in the first grade, as an advanced reader and remember the transition between picture books to chapter books with few pictures being difficult. However, the compassion and truthful story of Ramona really helped me to get over that hump and learn to stretch my imagination and appreciate what these types of books can do for the storytelling process.  I can remember countless school lunches after that moment, reading Ramona books so vehemently, incredulous that she was going through the exact same situations and feelings that I was, that I often forgot to finish my lunch. Even when I did, I often found myself thinking just how grateful I was that there was no hardboiled egg in my lunch sack, unlike poor Ramona.