Enjoy the movie Ramona and Beezus?

Houston Public Library suggests reading these realistic fiction titles.MWE Library owns a copy of each.

Ivy + Bean: Book One by Annie Barrows; illustrated by Sophie Blackall
When 7-year-old Bean's mother pesters her to make friends with the nice new girl next door, Bean says, "No thanks." The new girl, Ivy, may be Bean's age, but that seems to be the only thing they have in common. Ivy wears a dress every day and spends a lot of time reading. Bean only wears a dress when her mom makes her, and she's usually too busy zipping about (or getting into trouble) to read. But when Bean plays a mean trick on her big sister and it backfires, Ivy comes to Bean's rescue. Maybe they can be friends after all! If you like reading about all the mischief that Ramona gets into, be sure to give this 1st book in the very funny Ivy + Bean series a chance.

Moving Day by Meg Cabot
After an awful fight with her best friend, nine-year-old Allie Finkle starts a list of rules to live by. Rule number one: Don't Stick a Spatula Down Your Best Friend's Throat. Then Allie finds out that her family is moving to a creepy old house across town, which means that she'll have to go to a new school. Her efforts to stop the move get spunky Allie in all kinds of trouble, and it'll take a whole new bunch of rules for her to figure out the Right Thing to Do. Like the Ramona Quimby books, the Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls series (this is the 1st; The New Girl is next) is about feisty girl who's just trying to get along with her family and friends...and who sometimes messes up.

Ruby Lu, Brave and True by Lenore Look; illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf
Happy-go-lucky Ruby Lu is nearly eight years old. She loves her family, her neighborhood, and performing magic tricks, and she really loves riding the No. 3 bus to Chinatown to see her pohpoh (grandmother) and gunggung (grandfather). But there are new things in Ruby's life that she might not love so much: her mom wants her to go to Chinese school--on Saturdays!--and her baby brother, Oscar, is learning how to talk...and how to ruin things for Ruby. Like Ramona Quimby, Ruby Lu is often misunderstood, and Ramona's fans will enjoy reading about her mishaps and her loving family.

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker; illustrated by Marla Frazee
Plucky third-grader Clementine always has great ideas "sproinging up" in her brain...but her latest scheme was maybe not so spectacular. She really was trying to help her friend Margaret, but she ended up cutting off ALL of Margaret's hair in an attempt to get a glob of glue out of one piece of it. And, to Clementine at least, drawing replacement hair on Margaret's head with a permanent marker was a brilliant idea. Ramona Quimby fans are sure to enjoy Clementine's one-of-a-kind personality and her funny misadventures and will also want to read the rest of the books in the series (The Talented Clementine is next).

These titles are part of HPL's NextRead Subscription email service. To get started, click the link, choose your favorite topics from the list, enter your account information, and let them link you to your next book or library event.