Books like Ramona the Brave

I've had a copy of Beverly Cleary's Ramona the Brave somewhere in my house, regardless of where I've lived or how old my kids are, for 4 decades now, but I never had the audiobook, narrated by Stockard Channing.I don't really “do” audiobooks (exceptions made by books narrated by Colin Firth or Ralph Fiennes), but I thought I'd shake up this classic and expose my girls to a different narrator.I was saving it for a rainy day, but instead of rain, we had stormy weather in our car last week, a day when our girls just couldn't stop pummeling each other (any person who thinks girls don't fist fight is clearly the parent of an only daughter), and I finally cracked the audio book out of its cover and let Stockard Channing's impressive vocal range save the day.Ms. Channing does a fantastic job of changing voices and every time she “speaks” as the pre-teen Beezus in this classic story, I found myself laughing out loud. She does a brilliant job at capturing teenage angst, and she made Ramona's new teacher, Miss Binney, come alive as well. You can just imagine that she wouldn't be your favorite teacher.This story just does NOT get old for me. Beverly Cleary, as usual, nails childhood: the negotiations that come along with sharing a room with a sibling, feeling invalidated and/or copied by peers, disliking a teacher for an entire school year, and being chased and almost eaten by a savage, neighborhood dog.We were no further than chapter one when my 10-year-old started giggling in the back seat and finally spit out, “Mom, these two girls fight just like we do!” Ah, it's all so relatable (Even for me. When their mother, Mrs. Quimby, sighs deeply in exasperation, I sighed right along with her). Does any author capture childhood better than Beverly Cleary?Ramona had had enough. She had been miserable the whole first grade, and she no longer cared what happened. She wanted to do something bad. She wanted to do something terrible that would shock her whole family, something that would make them sit up and take notice. “I'm going to say a bad word!” she shouted with a stamp of her foot. That silenced her family. Picky-picky stopped washing and left the room. Mr. Quimby looked surprised and—how could he be so disloyal?—a little amused. This made Ramona even angrier. Beezus looked interested and curious. After a moment Mrs. Quimby said quietly, “Go ahead, Ramona, and say the bad word if it will make you feel any better.”Ramona clenched her fists and took a deep breath. “Guts!” she yelled. “Guts! Guts! Guts!” There. That should show them.