Book Review: Ramona The Brave By Beverly Cleary
Week 4 – Book Review: Ramona the Brave
Concordia University- Portland
Ramona the Brave is a humorous book written by Beverly Cleary that follows second grader Ramona Quimby through her struggle to prove her bravery. Unfortunately for Ramona, what her 6 year old mind perceives to be bravery is often not the case (moral knowing). The story begins with her older sister, Beezus, storming home from the park with Ramona closely behind. Beezus was upset because some boys were making fun of her name. To make matters worse, Ramona, who thought she was being brave, decided she would tell the boys how rude they were being (moral action). Ramona thought this was her one opportunity to protect her sister, but in reality, she embarrassed Beezus even more. …show more content…
The story continues as the Quimby family begins an addition on their house, which means the two girls don’t have to share a room anymore.
Ramona tries her hardest to be brave in her big new room, but spends many nights without sleep while on the lookout for boneless gorillas that may have slipped under the door in the dark. Her final battle to prove her bravery occurs one day when she decides to take an alternate route to school. Her confidence grows the further she walks until she is chased by a big dog who is not find of the new visitor. She first throws her lunchbox at him, but it seems to have no effect, so she takes off one of her shoes and throws it at him. The dog takes the shoe as his new chew toy, leaving Ramona to go to school with one shoe. The dog’s owner finds the shoe and brings it to the school, where Ramona is reunited with her newly chewed shoe. The damage on the shoe turns out to be her key to finally being seen as brave in the eyes of her classmates and teacher, something she desperately desired (moral
feeling).
While the main theme of the book is Ramona’s struggle with being viewed as a big, brave first grader, there are many other valuable lessons in the book. This book could be used with first through fifth graders to address concepts such as conflict resolution, communication, honesty, overcoming fears and the effects of name calling. The book could be read aloud to younger students with a different topic focused on each day. Older students could read the story themselves and then write a story about a conflict they have had in their own lives, such as Ramona’s struggle to be seen as brave.
References
Cleary, B., & Rogers, J. (2013). Ramona the brave. New York, NY: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Concordia University- Portland
Ramona the Brave is a humorous book written by Beverly Cleary that follows second grader Ramona Quimby through her struggle to prove her bravery. Unfortunately for Ramona, what her 6 year old mind perceives to be bravery is often not the case (moral knowing). The story begins with her older sister, Beezus, storming home from the park with Ramona closely behind. Beezus was upset because some boys were making fun of her name. To make matters worse, Ramona, who thought she was being brave, decided she would tell the boys how rude they were being (moral action). Ramona thought this was her one opportunity to protect her sister, but in reality, she embarrassed Beezus even more. …show more content…
The story continues as the Quimby family begins an addition on their house, which means the two girls don’t have to share a room anymore.
Ramona tries her hardest to be brave in her big new room, but spends many nights without sleep while on the lookout for boneless gorillas that may have slipped under the door in the dark. Her final battle to prove her bravery occurs one day when she decides to take an alternate route to school. Her confidence grows the further she walks until she is chased by a big dog who is not find of the new visitor. She first throws her lunchbox at him, but it seems to have no effect, so she takes off one of her shoes and throws it at him. The dog takes the shoe as his new chew toy, leaving Ramona to go to school with one shoe. The dog’s owner finds the shoe and brings it to the school, where Ramona is reunited with her newly chewed shoe. The damage on the shoe turns out to be her key to finally being seen as brave in the eyes of her classmates and teacher, something she desperately desired (moral
feeling).
While the main theme of the book is Ramona’s struggle with being viewed as a big, brave first grader, there are many other valuable lessons in the book. This book could be used with first through fifth graders to address concepts such as conflict resolution, communication, honesty, overcoming fears and the effects of name calling. The book could be read aloud to younger students with a different topic focused on each day. Older students could read the story themselves and then write a story about a conflict they have had in their own lives, such as Ramona’s struggle to be seen as brave.
References
Cleary, B., & Rogers, J. (2013). Ramona the brave. New York, NY: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.