Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary

Product Details
Pub. Date: April 2007
Publisher: Random House Audio Publishing Group
Format: Compact Disc
Series: Ramona Series
ISBN-13: 9780739338957
ISBN: 0739338951

Synopsis

Beverly Cleary has given books to each member of the Quimby household except Mrs. Quimby. Now she gets her turn at last in a story that hits the high and low points of a working mother's life as seen from Ramona's seven-and-a-half-year-old viewpoint.

Inevitably domestic tensions, not without their amusing side, occasionally arise. Mr. and Mrs. Quimby sometimes forget who is to do what, as when the Crock-Pot is not plugged in and dinner remains uncooked. Beezus acquires a ludicrous teased hairdo at the student body shop while Ramona gets a becoming pixie haircut. Ramona, who feels unloved, takes to twitching her nose like a rabbit in a cozy picture book until her teacher becomes concerned that something is making her nervous.

Yet Ramona is wrong. She is loved, and readers will rejoice with her when she discovers the wonderful truth. Few writers today are as skilled as Mrs. Cleary at showing families in the round, and here she is at the peak of her powers.





My thoughts:

I listened to this audio book earlier this summer with my children while we were in the car. This is something I mention a lot but I love how listening to a book holds my children’s attention so well. We do not have a DVD player in the car, but even if we did I am not sure it would hold their attention as well. When they watch TV they sometimes talk because they can still see the picture, while with an audio book if they talk they miss the action so they tend to be better behaved.

Ramona’s jealousy of her sister is something that is so common in families so the story was easy to relate to. Some of the antics from this book are featured in the movie that came out this summer, Ramona and Beezus. The incident with the tooth paste and wearing pajamas to school among others. We checked the book out after having seen the movie at the drive in theater. Because we had already seen actors playing the roles that is how I pictured each of them as we were reading. In this book they are a little younger than they were in the movie.

I like how even though these books were published years ago they still hold true today. It was neat to be able to tell my children that the book was even older than me because I am sure they think I am quite old!