The Complete 8-Book Ramona Collection: Beezus and Ramona, Ramona and Her Father, Ramona and Her Mother, Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Ramona Forever, Ramona the Brave, Ramona the Pest, Ramona's World

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The Lexile score for “Beezus and Ramona” is 780L, which corresponds to an approximate reading level of 3rd-5th grade. The language used in “Beezus and Ramona” is accessible to its target audience. Beverly Cleary expertly crafts sentences that are clear, concise, and engaging. While the vocabulary does contain some challenging words, the context and storytelling make it easier for young readers to comprehend their meanings. Additionally, encountering new words within the narrative encourages children to expand their vocabulary and improve their reading comprehension. Themes and Relatability Cleary's Ramona books have been adapted for Canadian television as Ramona. The 10-part Canadian television series starred Sarah Polley as Ramona and Lori Chodos as Beezus. [11]

The Grumbies: An older couple who doesn't like Ribsy, Henry's dog, because he likes to chase their cat. And I was overjoyed, because I knew in that moment that my 4 year old got it...that empathy...that connection to characters that made me fall in love with reading.

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As a parent, I was also moved by the Quimby's socioeconomic state. I love that they make do with less and how lovingly Cleary navigates Mr. Quimby's job loss, return to school to teach art, and the reality of not securing a fairy-tale ending of a job in the field he returned to school for. Wow. That is so rare, especially in children's books. Cleary is far more honest about reality, and rather than painting their struggles as a tragedy or anything pitiable, she brings beauty into it. The scene in the restaurant, when the older gentleman pays for their Whopperburger meal... gosh, it was so lovely. It was also heartening to see Ms. Quimby enter the workforce and taking charge of financially providing for the family while her husband struggled to find another job. They were true partners and supported each other, while having those real, hard conversations in their bedroom. It was also fun to see their parenting strategies in action, such as when they invited the girls to cook dinner for them as both a lesson and source of entertainment, haha.

The Ramona book series is designed for young readers aged 6 to 9, with a focus on beginning readers. The Accelerated Reader Level of this book is 5.2, which points to the general readability and comprehension level of the target audience. Reading level and age range Oh how I wish I had encountered Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series as a child. But yes, even though I unfortunately did not experience Beverly Cleary’s work as a young reader, my childhood reading experiences in Germany with Astrid Lindgren (until we moved to Canada in 1976) do actually and in fact remind me very strongly and equally totally fondly of how I am now emotionally and textually feeling and reacting with regard to my perusal of the first series novel, with regard to Beezus and Ramona, towards nine year old Beatrice (Beezus) Quimby and her often fraught with total frustration and annoyance relationship with her rambunctious and demandingly selfish four year old sister Ramona. And yes indeed, that is pretty much a major and total compliment from me towards Beverly Cleary as an author, since Astrid Lindgren is and always has been a personal favourite and I would thus of course only laudably compare Cleary to Lindgren if I thought that what I am reading from her, from Beverly Cleary’s pen is in fact something wonderful and readably delightful, and which Beezus and Ramona most definitely is and for a multitude of reasons.

Ramona Geraldine Quimby: The main character. She has straight, short brown hair and an active imagination. Her middle name is Geraldine. In a Battle of the Brats, my son couldn't decide whether Fudge or Ramona would win. I, however, thought Ramona the true champion. But she is hilarious. And actually, I started to admire her when she gives the excuse, "Because I wanted to see what would happen." Usually in books it is the boys who are scamps, but Beverly Clearly makes a little girl about as naughty and mischievous as possible. She was ahead of her time. Beezus and Ramona” falls within this range, making it suitable for independent reading or guided reading for children at the corresponding grade level. Beezus And Ramona Accelerated Reader (AR) Level

The other main thing I noticed was having to correct a few gender role issues. (In one scene Beezus remarks how Ramona is a girl and shouldn't be interested in construction themed books). Ramona is four to Beezus’ nine in this book, and she IS pretty awful: ruining two of Beezus’ birthday cakes in one day, inviting her friends over for a party without telling anyone, and, worst of all, defacing a library book so she can keep it.For albeit I actually do NOT AT ALL personally like Ramona Quimby as a character in Beezus and Ramona and find her a spoiled and entitled, often deliberately horrid and totally self-absorbed little brat, and who as the younger sister equally seems to oh so often get away with proverbial murder so to speak and as such of course also and naturally both infuriates and embarrasses her five years older sister Beezus (Beatrice), I actually do appreciate the realism portrayed by Beverly Cleary, and that she has with Ramona and Beezus depicted a relationship between siblings that will probably feel authentic and relatable to and for many of us readers who have to deal (or had to deal) with similar sibling scenarios, who have (or had) a younger sister or brother who could be a total proverbial thorn in our collective sides (and yes, even though Ramona as a depicted character drives me as batty as she obviously does poor Beezus, I do love seeing in Beezus and Ramona in many ways my own up and down relationship with my younger sister realistically portrayed in print, although I do wish that Beezus had less responsibilities with regard to looking after Ramona, as honestly, in many ways Beverly Cleary has in Beezus and Ramona older sister Beezus appear as kind of an unpaid nanny or babysitter, realistic perhaps, but also at the same time quite aggravating). Susan Kushner: Ramona's former rival, who seemed perfect and was revealed to be boring. Ramona was very tempted to pull her reddish-brown curls in kindergarten to make them bounce.