| abstract
| - Well-known and beloved children's book series by Beverly Cleary about a girl named Ramona Quimby, whose age ranges from 4 to 10 as we see different years of her life. The books are famous for their excellent and light-hearted mixture of believable real-life situations, humor, and personality. Part of what makes the books work so well is the portrayal of various events that are a huge deal to a child, but which are normally overlooked by adult eyes. For example, in Ramona the Brave, the first grade class has to make owls using paper bags, glue, and several other things. Ramona notices that Susan, who she doesn't get along with in the first place, is copying all of Ramona's attempts at originality. When Susan's owl gets praise from the teacher for being original, Ramona, in fear that she will be considered the copycat rather than Susan, tears up her own owl, then later, Susan's, and stomps out of the classroom and runs home in tears. That's the sort of event that many adults would see as simply a little kid being overdramatic about some little thing, but the way the story tells it from Ramona's eyes (in third-person limited), we understand her pain, her hurt at having been copied by the kid sitting next to her, and her fear of being mistakenly thought to be the copycat herself. And of course, her rage at being made to apologize and at Susan's smug look, so we can't help but relate (and yet also, as adults, cringe) when Ramona follows up the apology with a whispered insult. There's plenty of light humor as well. Some of Ramona's behaviors and solutions to problems are a little odd or occasionally bizarre to an adult, but make perfect sense from her point of view. For example, also in Ramona the Brave, Ramona tries to fight a scary dog by throwing her shoe at it; the dog promptly steals and runs off with said shoe. Ramona tries to hide her socked foot in class, then later decides to create a makeshift slipper out of paper towels stapled together in a slipper shape and use that as a substitute. Cute, funny stuff from an adult (or older kid) perspective, and an excellent example of why these books have so many adults as a Periphery Demographic. Even as Ramona ages throughout the series, the issues she faces and the "important to kids, usually overlooked by adults" problems she deals with continue to be age-appropriate relative to her current age. In Ramona Forever, in which Ramona enters fourth grade, Ramona finds herself blamed when bratty Willa Jean, then aged 5, breaks an accordion. After all, shouldn't 9-year-old Ramona have been looking after her more closely and stopped it? Ramona soon learns in no uncertain terms that Willa Jean's lazy grandmother hates looking after kids, and doesn't like Ramona. (This time, her parents are more understanding.) And things like that are why these books just work. The series has been made into a short-lived TV show in Canada, simply called Ramona, which emphasized the light drama found in the books over the light humor, and is most heavily based on Ramona Quimby, Age 8. Notable in that it completely averts Dawson Casting. A movie, titled Ramona and Beezus, has also been made. The list of books includes:
* Beezus and Ramona (1955) - Ramona is in preschool, and the story is mostly about Beezus, who is turning nine. This is more of a bridge between the earlier Henry Huggins series and Ramona's own, as Beezus never actually had her own series but was a character in Henry's.
* Ramona the Pest (1968) - Ramona is in kindergarten. Too-perfect Susan, and poor struggling Davy, are introduced.
* Ramona the Brave (1975) - Ramona is in first grade.
* Ramona and her Father (1977) - Ramona is in second grade.
* Ramona and her Mother (1979) - Ramona is still in second grade.
* Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (1981) - Ramona is in third grade. Yard Ape, a male friend/rival, is introduced.
* Ramona Forever (1984) - Ramona is inbetween third and fourth grade, during the summer. A new baby sister, Roberta, is born.
* Ramona's World (1999) - Ramona is in fourth grade. A new female friend, Daisy, is introduced. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and Ramona and her Father are the two Newbery Honor books of the series. Despite being Newbery Honor, there is no Death by Newbery Medal, nor are they depressing. They are in fact the same mix of light humor and mild drama as the rest of the series. The author, Beverly Cleary, has been named a "Living Legend" by the US Library of Congress.
- Ramona is played by Sarah Pooley in the TV series and Joey King in the film. She can get annoying sometimes, but she is still loving towards her big sister, Beezus, and her family.
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