Ramona the Brat Gains Perspective

Ramona the Brave marks a new chapter in this energetic girl’s life. Ramona Quimby has completed kindergarten and will soon enter the first grade in the sturdy brick building with her sister Beezus, who, after a traumatic name-calling incident with some boys in the park, rejects her acquired nickname and reverts to her birth name, Beatrice. Waiting is hard, since the summer is hot and boring with her friends away at summer camps or visiting relatives and Beezus is often cross with her. Her primary source of excitement is a game she and her best friend Howie Kemp invented called Brick Factory whose object is to smash bricks into powder with rocks. But Beatrice finds this noisy, messy activity particularly maddening, so Ramona can only play it when Howie is available. Both girls long for something interesting to break up the monotony of their summer.

As summer draws to a close, that something comes in the form of an addition to the house, a new room so that Beatrice and Ramona can have their own space. By the time the first day of school finally arrives, Ramona has something exciting to talk about: a hole in the side of her house. But when her glorious show and tell story goes awry, she fears it may be an indication of things to come. When the new room she wanted so badly is completed, she realizes that she is not quite so brave as she had thought and misses her sister’s company in the lonely dark of the newly finished room.

Ramona was so looking forward to first grade, but now that she is here, she misses her carefree kindergarten lifestyle and always understanding teacher. Mrs. Griggs, the first grade teacher, is stricter, the work this year is harder, and her prissy classmate Susan continues to torment her. Worst of all, she copies Ramona’s paper bag owl and receives lavish praise from Mrs. Griggs. First grade is shaping up to be very unfair indeed.

The more unpleasant first grade becomes, the more Beatrice raves about the sixth grade and her wonderful teacher, Mr. Cardoza. More and more, Ramona wishes she could return to the classroom of her beloved Miss Binney. But unexpectedly, Beatrice understands Ramona’s first grade struggles and helps her to face school even when it brings disappointments.

Although Ramona is still free-spirited and still behaves badly at times, Ramona the Brave shows her beginning to understand how others view her. This strange new revelation encourages Ramona to think a bit more before she acts. In this book, author Beverly Cleary moves her further away from her persona as Ramona the brat and towards the creative but self-controlled individual she is bursting to become.