Good lord, that was the saddest moment ever! I think that was also when I stopped being perpetually annoyed with Beezus. Previously, I always identified more with Ramona, so Beezus was jsut a pain. But she is so sad about poor Picky-Picky. I think Picky-Picky’s death was even worse than Jack’s in the Little House books, also high on the trauma scale.
Speaking of Picky-Picky, another memorable thing about the books was how Mrs. Quimbly wouldn’t buy Ramona coloring books, because she thought it was more creative to have Ramona draw her own pictures, and poor Ramona keeps drawing the cat on the cat food can (Puss In Boots?). This cracks me up because it seems exactly like something my mother would have done.
When I was 10, my dad took me to see The Elephant Man. This movie absolutely terrified me, and I couldn’t even think of sleeping that night. So what did I do?
I stayed up the entire night and read, from cover to cover, BC’s book “Ellen Tebbits”. The part I remember most was Ellen having a disagreement with her friend over the horses they got to ride one day.
“Dear Mr. Henshaw” is one of my wife’s favorite children’s books.
[hijack] Interesting that so many people in this thread are “rediscovering” how cool children’s books are.
You should make a habit of reading Middle-Grade and Young Adult novels. You’d be surprised at how mature the themes are and how entertaining the writing is.
Plus, you can get through many of them in an evening or two. Quick reads and some very, very good literature. Children’s lit is not what writers who can’t write “grownup books” are relegated to. It’s a genre unto itself, and doing it well is as challenging a discipline as writing any other kind of book. [/hijack]
I liked Ramona because she was “every kid”. She wasn’t a girly girl, or a tomboy girl-she was just a regular, everyday kid, with every day kid dilemmas.
I liked the one where they go to the hair cutting school, and the guy does Beezus’s hair up like an 80 year old woman’s!
Mr. tlw shocked my socks off today – I was mentioning this thread to him, and he said “Remember when Ramona told the boys at the park where to get off when they were taunting her sister by saying ‘Jesus Beezus’ at her?”
I had no idea that Mr. tlw read Ramona and Beezus books, let alone remembered them so clearly from his childhood. (He’s 43!) Just goes to show how much impact Cleary’s writing really has had.
I LOVED that one. Especially since Beezus was being such a BRAT about how the haircut would be so much better if it wasn’t from “home.”
I also liked the one (I think from the same book) where Ramona squeezes the whole tube of toothpaste into the sink because it feels so good she just can’t stop herself. Then she gets in trouble and her mom puts it in a plastic bag for her to use so it doesn’t go to waste, lol!
One of the things I remember most strongly in my adult years about the Ramona books is when Ramona was on the warpath, trying to get her dad to quit smoking. She’d steal his cigarettes, hide them, etc… and then she made a big huge sign to hang in the house that said “NO SMOKING”. Except that she drew the letters too big and it said “NO SMO” and on the next line “KING”.
And Ralph teased her about who this King No Smo was.
Wow, reading this thread I’m amazed at how many of the stories I remember!
Do I recall correctly in that Ms. Cleary wrote a novel about a girl who was embarrassed because she had to wear “old-fashioned” underwear every winter? Having been raised in Atlanta GA, it shocked my 8 year old brain to realize that there was such a thing as “cold weather underwear.”
I was just thinking of this one! There are two girls who become best friends because they both have to wear long underwear and, in order to avoid embarrassment, hang around in the gym changing room after everyone else has gone. I don’t recall the title; I’ll have to go look it up.
JohnT, Miss Mapp, that was Ellen Tebbits. The two also had the same dress the first day of school (made of material that had monkeys on palm trees and whatnot).
Man, reading this thread has been wonderful! I’d forgotten how many of her books I’ve read. Ramona and Beezus, Henry, Ellen, Ralph S. Mouse, etc.
I remember when CBC put out a Ramona Quimby mini-series (I think it was CBC), but I only got to watch a couple episodes.
John T and Miss Mapp: Ellen tebbits, and her friend Austine, i recall that they did ballet together at the Spofford School of Dance(where the underwear debabcle took place), of which was owned by Mrs. Spofford, where the girls were harrassed by her son Otis. Otis was friends with Bucky, and they collected dead bugs. He cut Ellen’s hair, and they banged blackboard erasers together (an unfamiliar concept to me)
I remeber when Ellen went to Austine’s place and they made brownies, and she had gnomes at her house, and older brothers. And i distinctly remeber a fight they had over a dress with monkey print material.
Anyone remember “Mitch and Amy” - twins?
Ramona was however my favourite, i remeber Ramona and her quiet times, and i remember when she went down into the basement and took a bite from every single apple and her mum had to make applesauce (my favourite Ramona anecdote), and when she went to art class with beezus and she was better than her horse/unicorn drawing sister, and spilled paint when she ate that boys’ lollypop, and when she poured a whole tube of toothpaste out in the sink, oohhh and when she invited all the kids in her grade home for a party on a rainy day without telling her mum and they paraded in the house.
…the fragments of beverly cleary memeories are all flowing back, and i am feeling very smiley. thankyou
Yes, that’s it. I’d forgotten all about the monkey-and-palm-tree dresses until you mentioned them!
I’ve been trying to dig up some 30-year-old memories here: I remember a scene at a school play, with children dressed as mice (The Pied Piper?). While other children in peasant-type costumes are dancing around a maypole, Ellen, in her mouse costume, somehow gets pushed back out onto the stage; her vision obstructed by her mouse head, she can’t find her way off until her friend, who isn’t speaking to her at this time and doesn’t realize it is Ellen, helps her.
I also liked the Beezus and Ramona books, but this one was my favorite. I think I identified with Ellen more.
