Perfect Day/Bad Day

This Canadian television production is based on the YA author Beverly Cleary's character "Ramona". Starring Sarah Polley as the irrepressible youngster "Perfect Day" relates the story of Ramona's Aunt Bea's marriage to the good-hearted Hobart. As usual, things do not go off without a hitch, and the inevitable problems are ironed out by the inventive Ramona and her sister Beezus. In "Bad Day", everything goes wrong for poor Ramona: she has to go to the babysitter, where the incumbent child is a monster who demands that Ramona's role is to play a rich lady's dog; she later spills blue detergent all over her hands; and her parents have a stinging battle over pancakes (with Dad taking it in the shorts with a spatula). In the end, Ramona realizes that people have "bad days", and the best thing you can do is just forget about it. These are excellent productions, and would be perfect for in-library story-hours as an introduction to Cleary's books. Highly recommended.