Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Ramona and Her Father Audio
Fiction
For ages 8 to 10
Unabridged audiobook (CD)
Performed/read by: Stockard Channing
Harper Children’s Audio, 2010 ISBN: 978-0061774072
It is payday and Ramona is hoping that her father will take the family out to dinner at Whopperburger. In fact, everyone in the family is hoping that they can go out to dinner. Then Daddy comes home and Ramona and her sister Beezus find out that their father has lost his job. Beezus, who understands more about money than Ramona does, gets worried, which is when Ramona starts to worry. If only there was something she could do to help.
Ramona wishes she could make a million dollars just like the boy on television who is in the Whopperburger commercial. She practices singing songs and saying the things that the TV commercial children say. Surely if she practices enough she can get a job on TV and save her family from destitution. Poor Ramona tries so hard, only to have her hopes squashed. Luckily Ramona’s daddy doesn’t want her to be a TV commercial child because he loves her just as she is.
Unfortunately, the longer Daddy is without a job the more crabby and worried he gets. Ramona begins to notice that her father is smoking a lot and she worries because she knows that smoking can turn a person’s lungs black. Surely if Daddy keeps on smoking all the time he is going to get sick and die. Job or no job, Ramona has to do something to save her father from himself.
The loss of a job in a family affects everyone, even a child who is only seven years old. It can be a scary time, a time when everyone has to make do with less. In this delightful Ramona audioook, Beverly Cleary addresses the issue of job loss with sensitivity and humor. She does not sugar coat the situation, but at the same time she helps her readers to see that even when things are not going so well, there are occasions when the sun comes out and when life doesn’t seem quite so gloomy.
Listeners who have followed the adventures and misadventures of Ramona and her family are sure to enjoy this audio title, which is beautifully narrated by actress Stockard Channing.
