Tiny Wonders: When Correction Feels Like Rejection

Ramona Quimby, Big Feelings, and the Love that Doesn’t Let Go

Beverly Cleary’s fearless, imaginative Ramona Quimby reminds us that even our big feelings (and our missteps) are part of learning to belong

Part of the Tiny Wonders series: short reflections on children’s books, faith, and everyday holiness.

Over the past summer, some of our most hectic weekends have come with a new soundtrack: The Ramona Quimby Audio Collection on Audible, narrated by Stockard Channing (yes, of Grease and The West Wing fame!). Ramona has become a true comfort read for my daughter, the kind of story she returns to again and again, especially at bedtime. Channing gives Ramona such perfect mischief that it’s hard to turn off. My daughter asked to go back to it again this past weekend, and I suspect I know why. As much as we’ve appreciated the fresh rhythms of back-to-school, it’s always an adjustment. Ramona—willful and often railing against rules—understands that better than anyone. (She even once refused to go to school at all!)

Beverly Cleary’s Ramona the Pest, the one we finished again this weekend, follows five-year-old Ramona Quimby through her first days of kindergarten. Ramona is less serious than her older sister Beezus, less “good” at school, but she is fearless, imaginative, and wholly herself. She longs to be loved and noticed, but she often discovers that her exuberance lands her in trouble instead.

By the end of the book, that trouble takes a very specific form: Ramona flat-out refuses to go to kindergarten—not out of fear, but because she desperately wants to pull another little girl’s curls. They spring up so temptingly, boing boing, that her fingers can’t resist—especially since this girl acts like a grown-up, like Beezus, and even calls Ramona a “pest.” When her teacher puts a stop to the curl-pulling, Ramona is undone. She tantrums at home—kicking her feet against the wall, crying, lamenting. In her black-and-white way of thinking, she decides she is not loved—certainly not by her teacher, maybe not by anyone.

How often do we feel the same? We lash out in little ways—if not by tugging curls, then with sharp words, judgments, glances. And when correction comes, even when it’s lovingly done, we still take it as rejection. I must not be loved.

But of course Miss Binney still loves Ramona. Just as God still loves us. Correction does not cancel care.

Cleary gives Ramona a moment of surprising reflection:

“Ramona considered. Kindergarten had not turned out as she had expected. Still, even though she had not been given a present and Miss Binney did not love her, she had liked being with other boys and girls her own age. She liked singing the song about the dawnzer and having her own little cupboard.”

(For those who may need reminding, the “dawnzer,” is Ramona’s darling mishearing of “the dawn’s early light” from The Star-Spangled Banner, proof that even mistakes can be full of delight.) This quote overall, I think at least, paints such a tender portrait: misread hurt, stubborn longing, and a tinge of joy. Ramona may be “a pest,” but she is also always very much brimming with energy, totally unafraid to want love, and slowly learning while in her expanding community what belonging with others requires. It isn’t always easy, as most of us know!

And maybe that’s why she comforts us still in our family at least—why this book is a contemporary classic—and why my daughter asked us to listen yet again this weekend. In this new school year, with its sharpened pencils, planners, and pressed uniforms, Ramona reminds us that the pauses, the corrections, even the disappointments, don’t erase the deeper truth: we are loved, still, always.

Next week, I’ll share a Top 5 list for high school back-to-school reads. But first, Ramona earned her turn, slipping back into our evenings right when it felt like we most needed her to remind us that it’s ok to feel a little overwhelmed during this time of year and even tantrum a little. But we’re still loved through it all. And we’re called to love each other and give grace in all our big and small emotions—just as God gives us.

What book character has helped you remember you are loved—even when you may have felt a little like a pest yourself?

In hope and holy curiosity,
LuElla

---

📚 Suggested Reading Shelf
Each week, I share one or two thoughtful reads (and in this case, listens) that pair well with the Tiny Wonder—for continued reflection after the book closes.

🎧 Christians Reading Classics Podcast: “Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little House on the Prairie” — I was beyond honored to join Wilder historian John Fry and prolific Christian writer and classicist

Nadya Williams

for the debut of her amazing new podcast at Mere Orthodoxy. Together we explore what makes a children’s book a classic and how Wilder’s faith and frontier life shaped one of America’s most enduring series. Listen here

📝 Fairy Tale or Friday? — This time, a great read by

Nadya Williams

at Front Porch Republic! (She’s on a roll!) She reflects on fairy tales, bears both real and imagined, and what these stories reveal about how we belong in God’s world. Read here