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Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
MY REVIEW:
I remember my mother reading books about Ramona Q to my brothers and I as we grew up, but I do not remember if she read this particular book to us or not. I recently got several of Cleary's book about Ramona to read to my own three children...and quite honestly, I was disappointed.
While Ramona is a lovable character and is easy for young children - especially first graders - to relate to, I was unable to read any of the 9 chapters straight through. There are mentions of ghosts, being scared of things in closets, and the mean name that the boys called Beezus. I had to use great discernment in reading this book with my own kids because I did not want to put fearful ideas in their heads. While I was able to "read through the book" as I left out certain paragraphs and sometimes pages, I would not recommend this one to young children or to any child who is easily scared. It's not that it was overall so scary, but it puts ideas into a child's head that then can become very scary to them. My thoughts are that if I have to skip through so many parts of the book, why should I read it? I do plan to read other Ramona books and see how they turn out, but you can be sure that I will be reading with great discernment.
Ramona is fun and is very "real life" yet may not be the best to be read. I would recommend reading the Cul-De-Sac Kids series by Beverly Lewis instead.
