When I was little, I loved the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary. These were books that stuck with me throughout all my years, well into adulthood. When I had daughters, I hoped they would read and love the Ramona books too. I gave the first one to B when she was 8. Much to my dismay, she was not a fan.
I remember I had asked her one day how she was enjoying the book.
"It's not really my cup of tea," she had said.
"Really?," I asked, trying to hide my disappointment.
"I'll read it if you really want me too, but I'm just not that into it," she said, clearly surprised that I was upset.
"Nope. I'm not going to force you to read something you truly don't like," I answered. "I know how hard it is to read a book because someone is telling you too."
Bring on 8 year old M. One day, last year, I had told her to go read and she complained that she had nothing to read. Our house is filled with books! Each of the girls have overflowing bookshelves in their rooms, plus 2 shelves of books on one of my bookshelves. Not reading because of a lack of material just isn't possible here.
"Really? Well, look at this," I had said, grabbing Ramona the Pest off her shelf.
"*Whine* I don't want to read that!," she whined.
"Why not? It's a great book! In fact, this was one of my favorite series when I was your age," I replied, handing her the book. "You have to at least try it, before you decide you don't like it."
"Fine," she huffed, stomping off, book in hand.
A few days later, she came to me.
"Mommy! Guess what?"
"What?," I played along.
"I love Ramona the Pest! I'm almost done and I can't wait to read the next one!"
Hooray!! Another Ramona fan in the making!
M ended up reading all 8 books in 3 or 4 months. I loved watching her enjoy them and I especially enjoyed reliving Ramona's adventures through my daughter's eyes.
Even though M finished the series last year, she'll still randomly bring up Ramona moments every now and again. Last night, as I was putting lunch together, M came into the kitchen and it seriously felt like she was channeling Ramona.
"Hey, M, please feed Psycho Kitty," I asked her.
"OK," she replied, skipping off to get some cat food.
"Mommy! I just came up with a great commercial idea for this," she exclaimed, holding up the container of food.
"'Meow Mix'," she continued. "'Cats love it so much, they can't stop meowing for it!' Then Psycho Kitty will go, 'meow, meow, meow, meow' and I'll say, 'Mix!'! Get it? 'Meow' Mix?"
I looked at her, with a smile on my face, and thought, "Just like Ramona!" She saw me smiling and said, "Funny, right?" and then scampered off.
A few minutes later, I heard her talking and realized she was reading to me from a National Geographic Weird but True book. After every little fact, she would either ask me if I knew that or make up some comment, "'There are more plastic flamingos in the world than real ones.' Oh! That's good. If I ever see a flamingo on someone's lawn, I'll know it's fake!" Really? The plastic of it wouldn't have been enough for you?
"'When ladybugs get scared, they spray a stinky smell from their knees.' They LIED!"
"How do you know they lied, M?"
"Because, I once saw a scared ladybug and it didn't spray anything!"
"Well, maybe it wasn't scared."
"Oh, no. It was. I took a close look and it looked like this: [insert big eyes, mouth like an 'O' and hands waving]"
"Ahh, OK then," I said laughing.
This is a huge change for M. She has always been very funny, but up until a few months ago, she would cry if people laughed at what she said. She is the best kind of funny. . . the kind where you are funny without even trying. The only issue with that is a lot of times, you say something in which you are serious, but because it comes out so funny, people laugh- even when you don't want them too.
As I was tucking her into bed, I said to her, "You really reminded me of Ramona tonight."
"Why?," she asked, grabbing her bear and snuggling under the covers.
"Oh, just some of the things you were saying. You really made me laugh. I'm so lucky to have my own real life Ramona!"
"Thanks, Mommy," she replied sleepily, with a smile, finally embracing one of her best qualities.
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