Ramona the Pest with her beloved doll, Chevrolet
(as written by Beverly Cleary and illustrated by Louis Darling in 1968)
I am very fond of Ramona Quimby. Especially since she and I have the same haircut now. I have admired her spunk since I was a first grader, but have grown even more attached to her as an adult. Hers are the stories that have required "laughing breaks" in the midst of reading aloud to the children. Hers are the adventures that enacted on cd by Neil Patrick Harris* have caused us to need to pull over to dry our streaming eyes from hysterical giggling fits.
Every time I get to really smash something (which come to think of it, isn't nearly often enough) I think with satisfaction of Ramona and her best friend Howie industriously smashing bricks to dusty smithereens in the driveway while they played "brick factory." And anytime one of us has to pull something or attempts to get one of the pups to pull something we yell, "Mush! Mush! Mush!" like saucy little Ramona did when the neighborhood paper boy, Henry Huggins, graciously pulled her wayward self home on his sled one snowy afternoon. Ramona also struggled with words and how fickle they can be -- "sit here for the present" meant she was going to get a gift if she sat there; "the donzerly light" was a friendly lamp in The Star Spangled Banner.
I love a character that can worry as much as Ramona, and take herself and her fears so incredibly seriously, and yet still manage to put her foot in her mouth and involve herself in predicaments at every turn. Ramona resonates. If she had grown to adulthood, I think she also would be asked to join a volunteer clown troupe by their lead clown ("Have you ever thought about clowning?! Um, well, no, I hadn't...). She also would be loathe to visit islands since everyone knows there's nowhere to escape if something dreadful happens when you're on one. She also would be enchanted with the Amish people - not for the whole lack of electricity and farming thing, but for the easy fashion decisions their way of life entails.
I could read tomes of great literature the world over and probably not find more than a handful of characters with whom I so easily identify as I do with small Ramona.
*Incidentally, Neil Patrick Harris was the only person who I ever hung a picture of on my walls during my teenage years. He was the star of "Doogie Howser" at the time, but still. That's who I picked to "like." Yep. Hundreds of male teenaged stars to devote my heart to, and I choose the one who ends up preferring other guys. Well, I also had that poster of George Michael that I backlit with my nightlight....good grief.
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