Ramona Quimby

For Easter, my mom and dad bought Hailey the entire set of Ramona books. Each night, at bedtime, Hailey and I read a chapter of one of the books. I love love love Ramona. She is so misunderstood, and creative, and real. Though when I was younger and I read the books, I don't remember really liking her. I always preferred Beezus. Anyways in tonight's chapter (we are currently reading "Ramona the Brave) Ramona is frustrated because she does not like the first grade, feels like her teacher doesn't like her or understand her, and has just given her parents her progress report. In it her teacher writes some things Ramona thinks are unfair, and Ramona's parents aren't taking Ramona seriously. So she states that she is going to say a bad word. As I am reading this out loud, I am really kind of panicking, because I'm not sure what she is going to say and if it really is a bad word, I am trying to make a decision on how I am going to handle it. After all, Hailey is only 4. I am certainly not going to swear. I should have known I had nothing to worry about, however, as the bad word is "guts". I laughed, I couldn't help it. Here I was expecting this awful word. I should have trusted both Beverly Cleary and the times that the book was written. Anyways I highly recommend reading these books with your kids. Ramona is such an interesting character and the adventures she gets herself into are so funny.