Common Sense Note
Sparkling writing style and humorous story line are both engaging and highly appealing. Art ranges from simple sketches to detailed line drawings and complements the text well.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Mary LeCompte
Rarely has any author had such compassionate, yet droll, insight into young children. Cleary has a unique talent for getting inside her characters' heads--there are few books as good for building empathy in young children as the Ramona series. Even when Ramona is at her worst, the reader always knows, and has humorous sympathy for, her perfectly understandable reasons for doing what she does.
The author is also expert at writing in a language that speaks to a kid's imagination. She conveys a world where curly hair goes "boing" when you pull it, and no shoes make a trip-trap sound on the pavement quite the way new shoes do. Illustrator Louis Darling provides the art, which features charming line drawings in various styles and depths of detail.
Older kids enjoy looking back at their not-too-distant kindergarten years. This book breaks all the rules about the hero having to be older than the reader, and is sure to spark fond and funny memories as they relate to Ramona's experiences and harmless shenanigans. Ramona helps children understand others--and themselves.
Even though the book is filled with pesky juvenile behavior, it's almost always curtailed and corrected by the ever-present monitoring of parents and teachers. And Ramona isn't all bad; one tender moment about sharing a red ribbon shows Ramona has more sides to her personality than just pest.
For more of this unforgettable character, try Ramona the Brave or Ramona Quimby, Age 8. Author Beverly Cleary is a prolific writer who has written dozens of best-loved books for and about young children. For another spunky trouble-maker, try Meet Calliope Day.
From The Book
Next Miss Binney taught the class the words of a puzzling song about "the dawnzer lee light," which Ramona did not understand because she did not know what a dawnzer was. "Oh, say, can you see by the dawnzer lee light," sang Miss Binney, and Ramona decided that a dawnzer was another word for a lamp.
Plot Summary:
Ramona has waited all her life for kindergarten, and the day is finally here! So, is this rambunctious five-year-old ready for all the rites of passage and life lessons that go along with it? This is a humorous and charming chapter in the ongoing saga of one of America's favorite little pests.
Rate It!
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Social BehaviorMany scenes of juvenile naughtiness, like name-calling ("crybaby," "tattletale") and hair pulling. |
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