Ramona Quimby, Age 8

Beverly Cleary has written around forty books and has been writing for longer than I've been alive. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 is the first book by her I've read and I loved it. It won't be the last. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 is the sixth book that features Ramona Quimby. Ramona is proudly starting 3rd grade. She gets to ride the bus. She's going to learn longhand. She has "Sustained Silent Reading" which she adores. She unfortunately has a few things to worry about too: Yard Face who might be a friend or might be a bully, her teacher has called her a "show off" and a "nuisance" and she's had the embarrassing experience of throwing up at school. Coming to this series though as a parent where my oldest is almost Ramona's age and my husband has just finished graduate school, I completely related to the Quimby parents. I nodded along when the car need a new transmission, when the dad was trying to do his homework over the noise of the kids being kids and the mom accidentally sending a raw instead of hardboiled egg in Ramona's lunch. Despite some dated references (like Ramona playing with the cigarette machine in the restaurant), the book holds up because the characterizations are so believable. The Qumibys are a believable parents trying to get by on limited funds while still providing a loving and nurturing environment for their children.