Battle of the Books: Ramona Quimby, Age 8

I am almost embarrassed to admit how incredibly slow I am at working through my Battle of the Books list. Being sick really threw me for a loop, but we're back at it. It's pretty bad when my 10 year old has read more than I have!

If you want to follow along, check out my Battle of the Books post and read with us! If you happen to be homeschooling a fourth or fifth grader, it's a fun little reading activity to do with them as well.

Ramona Quimby, Age 8 - Beverly Cleary

Mr. Quimby's going to college, Mrs. Quimby's going to work. Now that Ramona is eight, she can go to a new school with a new teacher and ride the bus all by herself. But after school she has to stay with Grandmother Kemp and be nice to that bratty little Willa Jean until Beezus (who's tempermental enough to ruin anyone's day)comes to take her home. Life isn't as easy for Ramona as it used to be. All the Quimbys have to adjust, and Ramona gets her chance to prove that she's "big enough for her family to depend on."

When I was little, I really connected with Ramona because I kind of understood her. I wanted to do this perfectly, just like she did. Unlike her, I was the oldest and my brother was two years younger than me, but I really understood Ramona's role in the family. My mom was a single mom for years and then she met my step dad but even still, we weren't well off and my mom worked a lot. In order for her to work that much, it was understood that we really had to be good for our uncles (who babysat us) and we were expected to take care of things because my mom didn't have time to do them. A lot of sacrifices were made with the understanding that that was just how it was going to be. It's not fun, but there wasn't another choice. 

In this book Ramona has had to move to a new school (totally could relate, I had gone to six different schools from Kindergarten through graduation) and she struggles with fitting in at school and then having to deal with an annoying toddler after school. She really dislikes going to Grandmother Kemp's house after school, but as she's reminded time and time again, she just has to be good and get along with Willa Jean because her parents need her to continue going there so they can work and go to school. The family struggles financially, and Ramona worries if she's doing good enough so she doesn't add stress to her parents. She silently struggles with a mean boy at school and worries her teacher thinks she's a nuisance. It's everything an eight year old struggles with as they learn how to get about in the world.

I loved it as a kid, and I loved it again as an adult. Even though, as an adult, I find Ramona to be kind of annoying. She's a watered down version of modern day Junie B. Jones (which I cannot stand, there- I said it). The book itself was a fast read (for me) and it comes in at just under 200 pages. It's a great chapter book for kids third-fifth grade ideally, maybe even a few advanced second graders. The concepts are easy to follow and the story structure itself is easy to read. Honestly, every eight year old girl should get this for her birthday. It's like a rite of passage, really. 

The next book I'm reading for Battle is The Witch of Blackbird Pond, which I said I would read before this but Olivia borrowed this from the public library and I had to get it back by Saturday. I remember reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond in fourth grade, so we'll see how much of the story I remember! Don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin' if you want to stay current with my Battle of the Books journey, as well as my other book reviews! 

The Fourteenth Goldfish

So remember how last week I told you I was participating in the Battle of the Books at my kids' elementary school and kind of helping them with the program? Well I finished one book so far, and as I finish them, I'll post a mini review of sorts and maybe a few other things in case you want to read along with me with your 4th or 5th grader.

The Fourteenth Goldfish- Jennifer L. Holm

Galileo. Newton. Salk. Oppenheimer.
Science can change the world . . . but can it go too far?

Eleven-year-old Ellie has never liked change. She misses fifth grade. She misses her old best friend. She even misses her dearly departed goldfish. Then one day a strange boy shows up. He’s bossy. He’s cranky. And weirdly enough . . . he looks a lot like Ellie’s grandfather, a scientist who’s always been slightly obsessed with immortality. Could this pimply boy really be Grandpa Melvin? Has he finally found the secret to eternal youth?

Obviously, this is a book I would have read as a kid simply because the cover is pretty rad. The book itself isn't long at all, 193 pages, which some kids have already said, "Mrs. Strand.... it's almost 200 pages!!". I usually reply with an eye roll and follow it up with the pages are short. Chapters are VERY short and I managed to read this in just under two hours. Once you get into the story, it's hard to stop. 

We start with Ellie talking about a goldfish experiment she once had and how she thought she must have a really special goldfish because hers never died. Obviously, her mother was just replacing the dead one for a live one all of the time, and that kind of stuck with Ellie. One day her mother comes home after an "incident" with her grandfather and arrives with an oddly dressed boy her age. Turns out, that's her grandfather- he discovered a serum that is essentially the fountain of youth and of course, nobody in his lab believes him. So from then on, Ellie is in charge of Grandpa Melvin, who attends school with her and creates a little havoc but also sparks an interest in science in Ellie who quickly discovers science is all around her. Everything in her life and environment is science, and she embarks on a mission to steal a jellyfish- crucial to Melvin's experiment. 

It's a super fun book, the kids who have read it so far have really loved it. In order to get kids excited about the book, we watched the book trailer: 


I also read an article from the New York Times about jellyfish possibly being a cure for aging, and discussed what the implications would be. What if people didn't age, didn't die?  If your kids are interested in this book, have them watch the trailer and summarize the article for them- it's a fun thing to have in your head as you are reading. I'll have to tell you that this would be a fun Christmas gift for kids ages 10-13, anything older than that and it might not be exciting enough for them. 

The next battle book I'm reading is The Witch From Blackbird Pond, which I confess I haven't started yet. Tonight! I'll start it tonight!