Anna’s latest book fad has been reading Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series of books. That is, having the books read to her. Of course, most of the books Anna has are ones that we have picked out for her, or ones that were given to her as gifts. Of these, the ones that Anna really latches on to are books where the main characters are strong girls. First Madeline (”to the tiger in the zoo, Madeline just said, ‘pooh pooh.’”), then Eloise (not so much strong as stubborn), then Pippi, and now Ramona and her sister Beezus. Anna now maintains that she is in fact stronger than Pippi because Pippi can only lift up a horse, but Anna can pick up the whole world (”Where would you stand?” I asked. Answer: “underground”).

Although Ramona and Beezus are the most true-to-life of the characters I mentioned, it is interesting that they take place in much different place and time than today… where a nine-year-old can be sent on an errand to the grocery store, or take her four year old sister to the library. For that matter, a couple of four-year-olds can want to and from kindergarten on their own. Now that I think about it, I walked to kindergarten when I was young… how different the world is today!