On Sunday night I wrote a 24-page paper for one class... tonight I wrote a short report for my other class... and that is why I chose to listen to this series on audiobook! I needed lighter reading for during the semester! However, there are layers to this book! This one is probably the deepest of the series. In it, Ramona overcomes many fears. She's six years old, so she's starting full-day school for the first time. With that change, her mother also feels freed to return to work, so Ramona has a different pattern to her day. She no longer comes straight home to her mother; now she must go to a neighbor's home after school. With that new job, the family is able to afford an addition onto their home and that means that Ramona gets her own room for the first time in her life! Now she's sleeping in the dark all alone.
As the title tells, Ramona discovers an inner strength and also learns to lean on her loved ones and overcomes her fears. On Goodreads, there's a bit of the description that says that "Beverly Cleary has a real knack for the subtle emotional complexities of young children. Never condescending, she sees children as real people with real feelings." This sentiment certainly comes across in the books! Even as an adult reading a book with a six-year-old protagonist, I still found ways to connect to her and share in her experiences. The emotional descriptions took me right back to my own childhood. And while yes, Ramona does overcome situations in this book that most children would relate to and also find scary, the book itself is never spooky or scary. I recommend this book to anyone from age 6 to age 106!
As I mentioned, I listened to the audiobook of Ramona the Brave. It has the same narrator as the first books in the series, who continues to do a good job of it.
*I checked out my copy of Ramona the Brave from my local library.
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