Beverly Cleary was a big part of my childhood — I discovered Ramona in second grade at the classroom reading corner, which had a classmate’s dog-eared copy of Ramona the Pest. Soon I was hunting down the other Ramona books in the library, and reading Beverly Cleary’s other books, too. I wanted so badly to live on Klickitat Street with Ramona, Beezus, Henry Huggins, and the whole gang.
Ramona Quimby was a character I could really relate to (yep, the highly independent middle child / little sister consumed by the need to find her place and stand out, forever getting into trouble with her wild imagination and crazy ideas) so I was really curious when I found out about the Ramona and Beezus movie.