Ramona the Pest

Ramona the Pest

By Beverly Cleary

Published by HarperCollins Publishers (2006)

Reading Level: Ages 4-8 years

Pages: 211

Genre: Fiction

Summary: Ramona gets to start kindergarten. She loves her teacher because her teacher understands her. Ramona tries really hard to learn and be good. She loves writing her name and turning her Q into a cat. She likes a boy and she chases him around every morning. A girl in her class has curly hair that Ramona likes to pull, and Ramona has to wear brown boots to school when it rains. For Halloween she dresses as a scary witch and "boings" the hair of the curly haired girl. When Ramona gets new shoes she also gets new red boots! but she gets stuck in the mud and Henry Huggins has to save her. In the end she loses a tooth and gets in trouble again for pulling the girls hair. When she can't promise the teacher that she won't do it again she is told only girls that don't pull hair can be in kindergarten so Ramona stays home for several days, until her teacher sends her a note asking when Ramona will come back and Ramona knows her teacher loves her.

My Reaction: I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Ramona is such a real little girl, Cleary does an amazing job bringing her to life. I love how Ramona thinks and that the reader is able to understand it and almost feel and think with her. The book is hilarious and really sweet.

Potential Problems: I don't see any problems in this book.

Recommendations: I would recommend this book to younger elementary school kids. It would be a great read aloud book for many ages.

These are all the books with Ramona Quimby in them. She started as a character in the Henry Higgins books.

• Henry Huggins (1950)
• Henry and Ribsy (1954)
• Beezus and Ramona (1955)
• Henry and the Paper Route (1957)
• Henry and the Clubhouse (1962)
• Ramona the Pest (1968)
• Ramona the Brave (1975)
• Ramona and her Father (1977)
• Ramona and her Mother (1979)
• Ramona Quimby age 8 (1981)
• Ramona Forever (1984)
• Ramona's World (1999)

I found the new movie, Ramona and Beezus, absolutely charming. I think that if you like the books you will love the movie and I think watching the movie doesn't ruin the books. This is a trailer for the movie.