A Tribute to the letter "Q"
While writing a comment on someones post, I mentioned that I am guilty of picking up a book and not finishing it. I forgot to mention that there were a couple of exceptions to that habit of mine. There are some authors who are so good that you want to finish their books even if it means getting to the dinner table late, or staying past your bedtime (when you were a kid) or using your entire lunch break at work. One such author is Beverly Cleary. Wow, does she ever write great kids and young adult books. I would read all my kids' Beverly Cleary books as soon as they would finish them. Among all of the characters of all of her books, the one I really love (and I am sure a lot of people I know do as well) is Ramona Quimby.
How I wish I could put a pair of eyes and a pair of ears to the letter Q, because that is what Ramona likes to do. The imagination that Beverly Cleary has to be able to create a character like Ramona Quimby is extraordinary. Ramona is so realistic that you can actually imagine her to be a real little girl. What am I saying? To me Ramona is real. I cannot have it any other way. I mean, when she actually gets in trouble for playing with an other girl's hair because she is fascinated by the way it bounces "Boing Boing", and the way she thinks that "Guts" is a bad word and says it to get her anger out of her system. It is amazing how she worries about her father's smoking and writes "NO SMO KING" everywhere. It is very touching when she gets worried that her parents might get divorced because their dinner was not ready because someone forgot to plug the slow cooker. There are too many cute little things to mention. So if you or your kids have not read these books, please do yourselves a favour and pick a couple from your local library. They will enjoy them and so will you.
They made a motion picture of these books combined. The movie is called "Ramona and Beezus". The books are a little different from the movie in the sense that they took a few incidences from each book and made that into a movie. It was fine, as Mrs Cleary, who is in her nineties, approved that. She enjoyed talking about the books and the movie.
Joey King, did a marvelous job of playing "Ramona Quimby" and even at this early age she is a terrific human being. She does a lot of volunteering.
8 comments:
Thank you for introducing me to Ms Quimby. I did not know of the book series. I didn't read much when I was little but as soon as I picked up reading it was the Famous Five and then shortly after, the Mills & Boons series!
I wrote about the Qur'an for my Q. I was going to do a simple Que Sera Sera, but I saw someone has done that, and thought new.
thank you for your informative post!
I wasn't much of a reader growing up but got into many children's books due to my children. As my last child grew older I had more time to read. Love reading but I won't hesitate to put a book down and not finish it if I find it boring. so I have many unfinished books but i also have many, many finished one's. :)
Thank you for the recommendation...it sounds just wonderful and something I could share with grandkids! I loved the previous post on respecting parents. I think it's natural to try and be more independant as we age...I can remember not liking some rules that I had growing up. But in all the "not liking" part, I never "not liked" my parents. Sort of like "loving the sinner, hating the sin" concept! I'm so grateful for having a close and loving relationship with my parents, and now having that with my grown kids.
Same here thanks for introducing me to Mrs. Quimby. When in Borders (?)I will look for some of her books.
I wasn't familiar with Ramona Quimby. I heard of the movie, but haven't seen it.
Ms. Quimby seems like a fascinating character. I will check out the books.
Nice post, Munir!
Doris
Hmmm, interesting - although I love cartoons, I must admit that I am not as fond of children's books at this time :)
I read these books in a children's lit class several years ago. Loved them. What's strange is, until your post, I didn't make the connection between the books and the Ramona and Beezus movie! I'm embarrassed!
OH - Wonderful Memories you just brought back for me! Thank you, I may even watch the movie now - I have avoided it because of my memories of the books, I was afraid it would not be true to it.
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