A review by ms_aprilvincent
Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary

4.0

I was looking for nostalgia, okay?
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This was the first Ramona book I read, though it's not the first in the series. I remember distinctly that I read it in the car as we were going from Mississippi to Virginia after visiting my grandparents--and loved it.
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Ramona seemed real to me, because she messed up and she felt insecure and she worried about her family. She wondered if her teacher liked her and she hated that a cursive Q looks like a fancy 2. These are all things we had/have in common.
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As an adult, I still found Ramona to be more authentic than most children written today. She's not saving the world, having an identity crisis, or living through an apocalypse; she's just being in 3rd grade and working out how to be "good" by adult standards while still making decisions that allow her to be herself.
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This book was published in the 80s but I'd give it to any kid without hesitation. Shoot, I'd give it to grown up people, because sometimes people need to be reminded that childhood wasn't always as easy as we remember it.