Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary

Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary ☆☆

For my children's literature class we were asked to do a book report on a selection of realistic fiction for middle-graders. Having just watched Ramona and Beezus not long ago with my son, and having been clueless on realistic fiction since I live in fantasy, I figured this was my way to go. I was disappointed. The story was great, the theme of coming-of-age was excellent and came across perfectly, but the language, oh dear the language. Even though this book was originally published in 1984 was no excuse. I'm a twenty-seven-year-old senior in college that is minoring in Literature and I was stumbling over the sentences from their poor structure and outdated language. In terms of story and theme this book would get five stars, but the language and sentence structure was beyond sub-par and barely deserves a one star, so my rating has been reduced to two stars sadly. One point to mention though, this book is the one book from the series that the movie is most modeled after, so if you liked the movie it might be worth checking out, but only if grammar doesn't make you want to pull your hair out. And to think I was told today to apply for a TA job this fall to start teaching composition classes, if I can't make it through a published author, what would I do with a classroom full of belligerent freshmen trying to get their basics done?