Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary

Category: Multimedia (Audio CD)
Title: Ramona Quimby, Age 8
Author: Beverly Cleary
Illustrator: Alan Tiegreen
Publisher: Random House : New York
Publication Date: 1991 recording
Grade Level: 2-5
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Theme: When facing tough times, or good times, family is everything.
Number of Minutes: 126 minutes

Summary: Ramona Quimby faces third grade, with its highs and lows. In addition to school, she is forced to spend time after school at a baby-sitter’s, whose persistent granddaughter demands attention. Ramona also silently worries about her family’s emotional and financial well-being. Her father quit his full-time job and works part-time while he goes back to college. Her mother supports the family as a physician’s secretary. The book was a Newbery Honor Book and an ALA Notable Children’s Book.

Evaluation: Readers of all ages will identify with protagonist Ramona Quimby, whose life contains common experiences everyone has lived through or can at least imagine. The plot is successful because of those instances, including Ramona being embarrassed in school and feeling anxious about returning. Conflicts between Ramona and a classmate, Ramona and a younger child at her baby-sitter’s, Ramona and her teacher all are interesting and make it difficult to turn off the CD. The effective plot line holds listeners’ interest. Many of the characters are fully described, with details that make them very real. That is desirable. The theme of family unity is genuine and a positive aspect for readers, some of how may not have the same situation in their own home. The style of writing is unique – warm and comfortable – and invites readers to enter into the story. The narrator, actress Stockard Channing, provides a voice that is easy to listen to, and injects great character voices. The cover of the CD case, the early 1990s book cover, is not entirely inviting for today’s kids, with pen and ink and watercolor stick-like figures depicting Ramona and some friends.