Ramona Forever

Title: Ramona Forever
Author: Beverly Cleary
Illustrator: Tracy Dockray
Publisher and date of Publication: Harper Collins Publisher, 1984
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Novel
Age Range: 3rd-6th grade

Summary: In this book from the Ramona Series, Ramona is a normal third grader doing normal things. She stays at her friend Howie's house after school until his Uncle Hobart visited and picked on her. She also got in trouble for "not watching" Howie's little sister when she sat on Hobart's accordian and broke it. She convinces her parents for her and her sister, Beezus, to stay home by themselves. They become closer after they bury their cat, Picky-Picky. Then the family finds out that Ramona and Beezus are going to have a baby sibling. Then, to make things worse, Ramona's aunt gets married to Uncle Hobart! At the end, Ramona has a baby sibling, Roberta, but Ramona can't go see the baby because she is too young!

Response: When I was young, I enjoyed series books like this one. I really liked that there were a few pictures in the book, just to help children see what was going on. I think lots of young girls would enjoy reading this novel. Ramona becomes a middle child and lots of children from 3rd to 6th grade are probably getting a baby in the family and can understand where Ramona is coming from. I think this book is a cute book for young readers to sympathize with, although at the end, Ramona couldn't go see her little sister. In reality, at all the hospitals I've been at siblings can go in the hospital room to see their sibling, it's just other children that can't. I can't imagine them turning a young sibling down and making them sit in the waiting room by themselves.
The Ramona series are fun series to read but they don't teach alot about history or fantasy. They teach more on life lessons, which I enjoy reading. They write from a children's point of view so that children identify with the character.

Teaching Ideas: I think that children would read this book more for fun instead of as class. I would suggest
that students that are middle children or expecting a baby in their family read this and write about how they feel, in comparsion to Ramona. Also, I found a wonderful website with lesson plans for this book: http://pirate.shu.edu/~medealyn/Ramona/RamonaIndex.html