Q’s joblessness takes a toll on his spirits and even on the Quimbys’ marital harmony, leading to brief, muffled quarrels, while in the next room the girls try not to listen. Q loses his job in Ramona and Her Father, leading to anxieties about losing the house and even their domestic happiness. The theme of paternal unemployment has gotten a workout in recent years, from Ramona’s cinematic soul sister Kit Kittredge: An American Girl to the wrenching dramas The Pursuit of Happyness and Cinderella Man, among others. His arrival home from work is a daily cause of minor celebration at the Quimby home - until the day he comes home with a clouded expression that every adult in the audience will immediately understand, especially in this economy. Q is an ideal dad: involved, affectionate, funny, talented and self-sacrificing. Cleary fans may or may not appreciate everything director Elizabeth Allen ( Aquamarine) and her screenwriters have done, but at least it’s clear we’re in the hands of fans who understand and love the source material. King portrays Ramona at 9, the age she was in Ramona Forever - though fans will recognize story elements from other volumes, including Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Ramona the Brave and especially Ramona and Her Father. Meacham (Sandra Oh), who encourages her pupils to be original, yet inexplicably does not want them using words like “terrifical” or “funner.” “She can’t tell kids not to invent words,” Ramona appeals plaintively to her parents (John Corbett and Bridget Moynahan). Consider the unfairness of her teacher, Mrs.

Newcomer Joey King is the ideal Ramona, with her impish smile, restless energy and genuinely baffled sense that other people don’t see the world the way it obviously is.

Ramona is probably Cleary’s best character, and it’s vital to get her right. Fans of Disney princess Selena Gomez may show up to see her as Beezus - and she’s winsome and natural in the role - but the casting of Beezus is less important than that of Ramona. Faithful to the spirit if not the letter of Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books, Ramona and Beezus borrows eclectically from multiple books rather than sticking to one, but gets right what most matters, above all Ramona herself. Ramona and Beezus is in the right neighborhood too, for all that it was filmed in Vancouver.

Ramona and beezus henry