What was your favorite book as a child?
When I was at a movie theater, recently, I saw a poster for an upcoming film, Ramona and Beezus, based on the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary. Instantly, I was flooded with memories of Ramona Quimby. I laughed out loud at her confusion at the expression, “Sit here for the present” in Ramona the Pest. I felt bad for her when she cracked an egg on her head and threw up in class in Ramona Quimby, Age 8. I appreciated the effort that she and sister, Beezus, made to convince their father to stop smoking. I have to admit that I did laugh though when Mr. Quimby asked who “Mr. King” was because her sign looked like “Nosmo King” rather than “No smoking.” I was grateful that I didn’t have any mean babysitters like Mrs. Kemp or a bossy older sister like Beezus. (Beezus had one chance to tell us her side of the story in the series’s first entry, Beezus and Ramona though we did get her and her friends’ frustrations through cameo appearances in the Henry Huggins books. Ms. Cleary was smart in realizing that Ramona, not Beezus, was the real star of the show.)
I know very little about this movie, but seeing that poster made me decide that I would like to re-visit Klickitat Street by re-reading the series. (Klickitat Street, by the way is a real street in Portland, Oregon.)
Our children’s librarian, Nancy, likes to ask adults, “What was your favorite book as a child?” So readers, what were your favorite books as children? What would you like to re-visit as an adult? Were any of you fans of Ramona Quimby?
posted by Laura
My favorite Ramona conundrum was when she decided that a quarter of an hour must be 25 minutes, reasoning that a quarter is 25 cents. That made perfect sense to me at the time!
That’s a good one, Macee! So typical Ramona.
I loved Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden”. Depending on my mood when I was 11, sometimes I identified with the know-it-all Mary and sometimes the sickly & grumpy Colin. I read it again when I was older and loved how the discovery of beautiful things won out over the dark and gloomy.
And I think I read Charlotte’s Web in one night when I was about 8!