Ramona's World (ramona Quimby, #8)

Beverly Cleary's Ramona's World follows nine-year-old Ramona Quimby through her fourth-grade year and the everyday adventures of growing up.

Ramona begins the school year eager to share news of her baby sister, Roberta, named after their father, Robert Quimby. On the first day, she tells everyone about Roberta, including her friend Howie and Danny, a boy she secretly likes but calls Yard Ape because of his playground antics. At school, she encounters Susan Kushner, a classmate with whom she has clashed since kindergarten, and meets Daisy Kidd, a new student with long fair hair and braces. Their teacher, Mrs. Meacham, asks the class to write about themselves. Ramona fills her page with enthusiastic cursive about Roberta, misspelling several words. Mrs. Meacham reads Ramona's composition aloud, and Ramona is thrilled. At lunch, she and Daisy begin a friendship, and Ramona goes home certain the fourth grade will be a great year.

Her confidence crumbles the next morning when the spelling words on the chalkboard turn out to be drawn from her own errors. Mrs. Meacham embarrasses her by asking whether she sat on a "coach" or a "couch," and the class laughs. At home, Ramona feels doubly overlooked: Her older sister Beezus, now in high school, reports spelling everything right, and Mrs. Quimby praises Beezus as responsible. Ramona feels invisible, convinced everyone fusses over responsible Beezus and adorable Roberta while ignoring her. Her mood shifts when she sticks her tongue out at Roberta on an impulse and the baby imitates her, smiling. Ramona realizes she can teach Roberta things, declares she really is her role model, and mentally spells "role model" correctly.

As autumn deepens, Ramona visits Daisy's house for the first time and likes everything about it: the friendly dog Mutley, the enormous cat Clawed (spelled C-l-a-w-e-d, named for being clawed by another cat), Daisy's teasing older brother Jeremy, and Mrs. Kidd, a warm, easygoing mother. The girls outwit Jeremy for control of the television, vacuum Clawed (who enjoys it), and watch their favorite show, Big Hospital. Daisy suggests they be best friends, and Ramona reveals she was thinking the same thing. Each confides a loneliness: Daisy from starting a new school and Ramona from having no girls her age nearby.

Meanwhile, Beezus receives an invitation to a party at her friend Abby Alexander's house, where there will be boys and dancing. Mr. Quimby gives Beezus dancing lessons in preparation. One Saturday, Beezus comes home with tiny gold earrings she bought with her baby-sitting money, without asking permission. When Mrs. Quimby questions her, Beezus erupts, saying she is tired of being "plain old responsible Beezus" and wants to be glamorous. She admits she appears contented on the outside but not on the inside. Mrs. Quimby is moved to tears, and Mr. Quimby eases the tension by joking that he is surprised Beezus did not get her nose pierced. Ramona reflects on growing up, feeling as if she is reading a good book and wants to know what happens next.

On a later visit to Daisy's house, the girls play dress-up. Ramona becomes a princess and Daisy a wicked witch. Daisy shows Ramona a small door leading to an unfinished attic space and declares it a dungeon. In their playful shoving, Daisy pushes Ramona through the door. Ramona steps off the support boards onto the lath-and-plaster ceiling below, which cracks under her weight. Her legs break through into the dining room, and she hangs terrified over a joist until Jeremy pulls her out. Mrs. Kidd bandages her scratched legs. Daisy tearfully takes responsibility, but Ramona says the fault was shared, and Daisy promises not to tell anyone at school. At home, Ramona dramatizes the incident for her family and concludes it was a happy ending: Her family paid attention, and she still has a best friend.

The night of Abby's party, Beezus returns happy, her face covered in lipstick and eyeshadow from free cosmetic samples. The boys refused to come inside, instead playing chess under the porch light and chasing each other with a night crawler. The police drove by but kept going. The girls played board games; no one danced. Beezus concludes she and Abby are not "the popular type" and does not care. Ramona falls asleep glad that Beezus is "still sensible on the inside."

By Thanksgiving, Ramona mostly likes Mrs. Meacham but finds the teacher's habit of confiscating passed notes and adding misspellings to the chalkboard irritating. Yard Ape drops a note on Ramona's desk, but Mrs. Meacham seizes it, adds "Ramona" to the spelling list because Yard Ape wrote "Ranoma," and tears up the note. At recess the boys chant that Danny loves Ramona, and Yard Ape avoids her afterward. Her family helps her study spelling until Mrs. Quimby, after a sharp argument between the sisters, declares Ramona is on her own. One afternoon, Ramona and Daisy discover a newspaper advertisement from a tax preparer, J. K. Barker, containing words like "gonna" and "shoulda." They write a critical letter and mail it. A week later, J. K. Barker replies, admitting to having "goofed" and praising the girls. Mrs. Meacham reads the reply to the class and pins it to the bulletin board. Ramona feels better than she has all year.

Winter brings new challenges. Ramona tries to feed Roberta strained peas, but Roberta blows them all over Ramona's face. The next day, dressed up for school pictures, Ramona expects a nice photo. The photographer tells each child to say "cheese," but when Ramona's turn comes, he says "peas." She instantly recalls Roberta spitting peas, scowls, and wrinkles her nose just as the camera clicks. When pictures arrive weeks later, classmates snicker. Ramona hides the photos until her parents see them, laugh, and plan to send them to relatives.

During semester break, Ramona cat-sits Clawed while the Kidds visit relatives. The cat proves demanding, yowling at night and shedding everywhere. One afternoon, Mrs. Quimby leaves Ramona alone with Roberta for 15 minutes. Clawed begins coughing up a hair ball, so Ramona carries him outside. While she is gone, Roberta crawls to Clawed's carpet-covered scratching post and gets her head stuck in one of its holes. Terrified, Ramona tries peekaboo, which fails. She then recites "The Three Little Kittens," Roberta's favorite nursery rhyme. Roberta stops crying to listen, and Ramona eases her head free. She hugs Roberta, who calls her "Mo-mo." By the time Mrs. Quimby returns, Ramona is sitting calmly, having successfully baby-sat for the first time.

Valentine's Day arrives, and Ramona runs out of store-bought valentines before addressing one to Yard Ape. Following Beezus's advice, she puts one of her ugly school photos in his envelope. At the class party, Yard Ape pulls the photo out, grins, and tucks it in his shirt pocket. His valentine to her is a handwritten poem: "If you are eating peas / think of me before you sneeze." They smile at each other, and Ramona folds the poem small enough to keep in the box where she stores her baby teeth.

In late May, Ramona celebrates her 10th birthday at the park with a chocolate cake frosted in whipped cream. She calls herself "zeroteenth," insisting that 10 counts as a teenage year. Her mother requires her to invite Susan. At the party, the guests fuss over Roberta and ignore Ramona until they remember the birthday girl. Yard Ape and friends crash the party briefly, but Ramona orders them away for scaring Roberta. When cake is served, Susan refuses, saying her mother read that blowing out candles spreads germs. Susan then throws her apple across the lawn and cries, confessing that nobody likes her and she is expected to be perfect every minute. Mrs. Quimby comforts Susan, and Ramona, feeling genuine sympathy, offers, "I survived spelling," which seems to help. The girls run off to play. Ramona gives leftover cake to Yard Ape and his friends, who sing "Happy Birthday" with a teasing verse. She is secretly pleased that Yard Ape called her "dear Ramona." She shouts that she is "a potential grown-up," and Yard Ape shouts back, "Me too!" Ramona runs to the rings, feeling the day is not perfect but close enough.