Ramona Returns, Vibrant as Ever

Ever since the age of seven or so, I have been a big fan of Beverly Cleary’s books, particularly those involving Ramona Quimby, a girl I always found to be not so different from myself. For many years, my collection of Ramona books was complete, ending with the eventful Ramona Forever, which culminated in the marriage of Ramona’s Aunt Beatrice and the birth of her sister Roberta. I thought her saga had ended, but in 1999, fifteen years after Ramona Forever, Cleary added another volume.

Ramona’s World finds Ramona in the exciting new position of big sister. She is fascinated by her sister’s tiny but perfect body and her steady growth and can’t wait to start the fourth grade so she can tell her class all about Roberta. At the same time, she misses being the baby of the family and resents always being shushed so Roberta can sleep. Meanwhile, she still has to deal with being a little sister. Beezus is now in ninth grade and beginning to tire of the sensible persona she’s always held. As her days become consumed with excited telephone conversations and fashionable clothes and accessories – including a pair of earrings acquired without her parents’ permission with money earned from babysitting – Ramona begins to miss the old Beezus.

She feels very grown-up now that she is in the fourth grade, and school would be quite pleasant for her if it weren’t for the fact that her new teacher, Mrs. Meacham, is very concerned with spelling, a subject that bores Ramona. Not only does her teacher insist she take the time to spell words more carefully, her mother complains that Ramona uses the word “stuff” too much and wants her to find more interesting alternatives. Mrs. Quimby also wants her daughter to spend more time with Susan, the prissy, curly-haired girl who Ramona perceives as her classroom nemesis.

But Ramona doesn’t have much time to worry about Susan because she has befriended the new girl in her class, a girl with long blond hair named Daisy Kidd. Ramona has never had a girl best friend before; the chief friendship of her life up to this point has been with the bland Howie Kemp, whose obsession with building things begins to bore her. Now she has a friend with whom she can play dress up, watch the soap opera Big Hospital, and do other girly things. She loves going over to Daisy’s house with the cat who likes to be vacuumed, the dog who watches television, the big brother who calls Daisy names, and the mother who treats Ramona like a big girl.

The only subject on which she and Daisy disagree is Danny, the rowdy boy at school who Ramona calls “Yard Ape.” He’s the sort of boy who likes to tease and always comes close to causing trouble without actually angering the teacher. In fact, he’s a very good student, and his antics are more amusing than obnoxious. Still, his rambunctious behavior on the playground earns him the label “awful” from Daisy, a claim Ramona refuses to dispute because she does not want anyone to know she has a crush on him.

Cleary was 83 years old when this book was published, but her insight into a child’s psyche and skill at conveying pivotal situations in colorful but age-appropriate language had not diminished. The transition from Ramona Forever to Ramona’s World is perfectly natural, and children just being introduced to Ramona now would never guess at the span of years between volumes. For longtime fans like myself, meanwhile, this book is an unexpected treat, a venture back into the world of a most beloved childhood character whose adventures we’d thought were over. And as soon as we’ve read the first page, it’s as though we never left.