Sunday, July 13, 2008

Books #47 & 48: Beezus and Ramona and Ramona and her Father



Titles: Beezus and Ramona and Ramona and her Father
Author: Beverly Cleary

In Beezus and Ramona, nine-year-old Beatrice Quimby is terrorized by the most annoying preschooler of all time, her little sister Ramona. In Ramona and her Father, Ramona (now in second grade) is terrorized by father, who lies around the house smoking cigarettes after losing his job.

After too many days in the car, I was running out of things to keep the kids occupied. One afternoon, while we were wandering the busy streets of downtown Marshall (yes, that's sarcasm) we stopped in at the library and found these two books on CD. We popped them in the CD player on Wednesday morning, a couple of hours into the drive. I was pretty excited for the change of pace, and Stockard Channing, who I've loved in other things, was narrating. Listening to Beezus and Ramona and Ramona and her Father was probably the most annoying four hours of the car trip. Instead of listening to my own children, who I love, fight with each other, I got to hear whiny, screechy-voiced Ramona whine, sullen, put-upon Beezus whine, and both of their parents whine. It felt like watching Supernanny. I get enough whining in my own life (especially on cross-country car trips) I don't need to listen to other people whining too.

1 comment:

Kermit~the~Frog said...

I think these are better if you just read them. Scooter has just started reading all of my old Beverly Cleary books and I hope he enjoys them as much as I do. (I started him with Henry Huggins, Beezus' friend, since I think he could relate to Henry better.)