04/23/2021 at 5:32 PM Posted by Kevin Edward White
By Rebekah Curtis, Public Discourse (Witherspoon Institute), April 14, 2021
Beverly Cleary did not make Ramona a specimen of moral improvement, or a Christian evangelist. She made her a Christian child. Unlike Christian families today, however, Ramona’s family lives a world in which traditional morality is the cultural default. Going to church makes you normal, and practicing Christianity garners social rewards. Christian life simply means living.
I met Ramona Quimby in third grade. My teacher introduced her to the class via Ramona the Brave maybe a strange choice, since Ramona is a lowly first grader in that volume of her story. But environmentally, the decision made sense.