Mystery boxes

By Charlene

My parents have been secretly leaving boxes of my old stuff in my garage. Boxes containing records, photo albums, high school yearbooks, Hello Kitty trinkets... all things that I left behind at their home when I moved out many moons ago. It's turned into a game. They love to see how long it will take before I discover a new box in our garage storage shelves. Mom and dad are getting really creative in hiding them. I don't actively look, mind you. These boxes always seem to appear when I least expect it. And I always react the same way, shouting "Damn you! Another box of crap for me to get rid of!" Which, I guess, is exactly what they want... it's probably the same thing they say when they find my stuff.

One of these boxes had a set of books -- Beverly Clearly's Ramona series: "Ramona the Brave," "Ramona and Her Mother," and so on. They were my favorite. I would read them repeatedly, never tiring of heroine Ramona Quimby and her wonderful antics. As the youngest in my family, I could relate to being thought of as a pest, like Ramona often was by her sister, Beezus.

One night as I was nursing Quin, I looked over at my bookshelf and noticed these Ramona books gathering dust. I grabbed one and started flipping through the pages. I then I found myself reading them during every nursing session. It was as if I had found an old friend.

Nolan happened to see one of the books, "Ramona and Beezus."

"Mom, what's this book about?" he said. I told him that when I was a little girl, I used to read a book about a little girl named Ramona. In this particular book Ramona was four years old and in preschool. He liked that, since he is nearly four and in preschool.

"Will you read this Mom?" he asked.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "There are not very many pictures. It's mostly words."

"Mommy, read it."

So I did. Nolan listened intently to chapter after chapter of pure storytelling. He laughed at the right spots and asked questions about why Ramona was being naughty, and why sister Beezus was cross with Ramona.

Throughout the book, Beezus struggles with her feelings about Ramona, feeling guilty because she sometimes just doesn't like her little sister. The book ends with Beezus realizing it's normal to have these feelings, and that sometimes Ramona doesn't like Beezus too.

Nolan's been going through some growing pains as he figures out his role as a big brother. Quin, now three months old, is a sweet baby and rarely cries. But when he does, or when Nolan has to wait for me because I am with Quin, Nolan shouts, "I don't like Quin." Thanks to my old Ramona books, he understands that it's okay to feel this way. I think it's made his world a little easier.

I'm anxious to find another box of old treasures in my garage, courtesy of my folks. It just may hold something from my childhood that not only taught me something about life, but can help my boys too.

Charlene lives in California's Bay Area with her husband and two children.

Comments

[Robin P]

I think your parents are hysterical!!! What a great imagination and sense of humor they have. Maybe they don't know what is in each box but it seems to be just what you need at the right time. How interesting!! I will have to remember this trick for when Lillianna is older and on her own. I will do the same thing to her.

Actually,Lillianna has bought some Ramona books but the name Beezus is so weird I almost can't listen to them....lol. Is it short for something? Beatrice maybe? I was not a Ramona reader as a kid so I am clueless.

[M&Co.]

Oh I love Ramona! As hookey as it sounds, I like those books for their simple messages that help my kids get along in life.

[Peyton]

I was an avid reader when I was young, like you were. I'm so excited to share all of the books I read with Ella as she gets older - the Ramona books, Madeleine L'Engle, C.S. Lewis, L.M. Montgomery. Those books were such a huge part of my childhood - I'm looking forward to reliiving them all over again! How awesome that you have already started doing that with your son!

[Amber]

I absolutely LOVED the Ramona books when I was younger, I guess about age 7 or 8. I wonder if I could dig a copy up somewhere. If/when I have kids, I'd love to have those books around.

[Melessa]

I recently bought some of the Ramona books for my 7 year-old daughter and they were a huge hit. It is so much fun when we can find something from our childhood that our kids love too.

[Tami]

What an awesome post! I love the Ramona series and many of Cleary's other books. It is amazing to me how her style of writing became so much more advanced and sophisticated as her characters (and thus, readers) grew older. She really was a visionary. I am returning to teaching this fall, and one of the things I'm most excited about is getting to introduce a new class of second graders to Ramona. There are at least two picture books by Cleary that I'll bet Nolan would love. One of them is called The Big Hole. I can't remember the other. Look for them at the library if you haven't already! Happy reading!

[Julie]

Charlene, that is so cool. We have been reading the Ramona books to Tacy at bedtime (already finished Ramona and Her Mother, almost finished with Ramona and Her Father), and she loves them. After we kiss her goodnight, we leave her with the book and she "reads" to herself for another 15 minutes or so. Like Nolan, she has a new little sister and has been adapting to her new role.

How I wish such treasures would magically appear in my garage. I've been carting around my childhood books ever since I moved out of my parents' house, simply because I knew someone else would love them again someday.