I was invited to see a special preview of this movie in Denver this week, thanks to my wonderful friend Barb at Elementary Spirits.

I have an 8-year-old daughter and 8-year-old niece. We’ve read the books. I read the books when I was a kid too. So I was excited to see this movie. We are also huge Selena Gomez fans in our house too. John Corbett and Josh Duhamel are easy on the eyes too.

I won’t spoil anything, but the movie was great and heartwarming. My favorite part – no huge special effects, loud music or crazy animated characters. Sure all of that is fun, but it’s nice to watch a quiet movie that’s more about the story and characters than the hugeness of it all.

Although I don’t remember specifics from the books, I do remember some of the parts from the books. They showed up in the film. The one disappointing thing, if you can call it that, was that I thought the girls were younger in the books. In the movie, Beezus is somewhere around 15 and Ramona is 9 1/2. I also thought the books told the story from Beezus’ perspective about her younger, rambuncious sister Ramona. The movie is told from Ramona’s perspective and it has more to do with their entire family dynamics vs just focusing on the sisters’ relationship.

Apart from that, the movie is a sweet, warm story about the difficulties, bumps and love a family goes through while the kids are growing up. My own family has had some pretty big bumps recently and the movie made me stop and think about everything from the kids’ point of view versus my own.

So enjoy a cool, quiet afternoon in the AC and take your kids and go watch “Ramona and Beezus” this summer.