Ramona Backslides But Emerges Wiser

After devoting a book to Ramona Quimby’s relationship with her father, Beverly Cleary took the logical step and entitled the next volume Ramona and Her Mother. Ramona is still in second grade, but circumstances have changed. The book begins with a neighborhood party to celebrate Mr. Quimby’s acquisition of a job as a checker at a local shopping mart. With Mrs. Quimby still working full time, that means Ramona and her sister Beezus must stay with Ramona’s friend Howie Kemp’s grandmother after school, a situation neither of the girls is crazy about, especially when Howie’s sister Willa Jean is old enough now to be annoying. Ramona observes the sticky, crumby, destructive child with distaste and cringes when the neighbors and even her own family compare Willa Jean to her. Surely she never could have been that obnoxious!

Beezus lets it be known that she still finds Ramona obnoxious from time to time, and Ramona can’t help feeling cross with her older sister. Ramona tries to be good – sometimes goes out of her way – but no one seems to appreciate her efforts. While everyone comments on Beezus’ responsibility, calling her “her mother’s girl,” and Mrs. Quimby responds by saying she couldn’t get along without Beezus, her mother never announces in front of the neighbors what a good helper Ramona is. Even when Beezus’ new fashionable sensibilities cause her to quarrel with her mother, in the end the topic only brings them closer together, and Ramona feels more left out than ever.

While the seriousness of the situation in Ramona and Her Father required Ramona to keep her impulsive tendencies in check, less tense circumstances in this book allow some of Ramona’s less admirable qualities to surface once more. She indulges in several tantrums and even allows herself to realize her lifelong fantasy of squeezing out an entire tube of toothpaste. Her unconventional creativity also leads to a messy incident with a bottle of bluing in Howie’s basement and an uncomfortably hot trip to school with her pajamas under her clothes.

While Ramona observes Mrs. Quimby’s reactions to Beezus’ changing demeanor, she also bears witness to a very startling event: a full-blown fight between her mother and father. Although they later assure the girls that even though grown-ups get upset and quarrel sometimes, it doesn’t mean they don’t love one another, Ramona disapproves of their behavior, recalling her friend Davy whose parents got a divorce. The long, tense conversations her parents have after Ramona is in bed only make her more nervous, especially since they are too quiet for her to make out the words. What words she does understand have to do with school, leading her to believe they must be arguing about her, which makes matters even worse.

Cleary’s exploration into Ramona’s psyche continues with this book, and readers observe as the seven-year-old struggles to find her place in a world where she always seems too young to be responsible and too old to be cute. Cleary has a gift for using language simple enough for young children to comprehend but vibrant enough to keep them, and even their parents, enthralled. Her acute understanding of how young children think keeps Ramona and Her Mother, like the other Ramona books, by turns funny and moving, but always truthful.