The Complete 8-Book Ramona Collection: Beezus and Ramona, Ramona and Her Father, Ramona and Her Mother, Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Ramona Forever, Ramona the Brave, Ramona the Pest, Ramona's World

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Anxiety Dreams: In Ramona The Brave, Ramona is having trouble adjusting to the first grade. She's also sleeping in her own room for the first time, which makes her afraid of the dark. She tells her mother about a nightmare where something horrible is chasing her and she can't run. Beezus comments that she's had the same dream and that it's awful. Prone to Vomiting: When Roberta was two months old, she often spat up (not exactly unusual for an infant that age). This book fulfills Topic #5 of Equinox #2 Book Challenge: The Earliest Remembered Chapter Book Read in Childhood Early-Installment Weirdness: Beezus and Ramona is written from Beezus's point of view instead of Ramona's, and the narrator refers to the Quimby parents as "Father" and "Mother," when all the later books use "Mr. and Mrs. Quimby."

Eskimos Aren't Real: Played with but ultimately averted in Ramona Forever. Ramona tells her family about Howie's rich uncle, who has been traveling in what sounds like a made-up country — Saudi Arabia. Pohlmann, John Ogden (1974). California's mission myth. Dept. of History (doctorate thesis). University of California, Los Angeles. Henry Huggins: Beezus' red-headed friend. The Ramona series of books are a spin-off of the Henry Huggins series. New Baby Episode: Downplayed for the book "Ramona Forever". A subplot is that Mrs. Quimby is pregnant, and the baby, whose name ends up being Roberta, is born in the final chapter. Wake-Up Call Boss: While Ramona, like any other child, feels that grown-ups are often unfair in their rules because she doesn't understand why those rules are in place, Mrs. Griggs represents Ramona's first realization that some authority figures are genuinely unfair and that life in itself isn't always fair. Mrs. Griggs is also the first time in her life that Ramona has had to deal with a stern and coldly indifferent authority figure, in contrast to the warm understanding of her parents and Miss Binney. Her parents are sympathetic enough to her complaints about Mrs. Griggs to question Beezus about her experiences with the teacher, but point out to Ramona that many of Mrs. Griggs's observations are fair ones (with regards to Ramona's problems with self-control). They also point out that part of growing up is learning how to deal constructively with people you do not get along with. This proves to be a turning point for Ramona, as she takes her parents' advice to heart and develops much better self-control in school.

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Gift-Giving Gaffe: Uncle Hobart, apparently not knowing a lot about kids, gives Willa Jean an accordion that she couldn't possibly learn how to play until she's much older. Not surprisingly, she breaks it within less than an hour. In Ramona the Pest, which takes place when Ramona's in kindergarten, Ramona mistakes the lyrics "the dawn's early light" (in the Star-Spangled Banner) for "the dawnzer's lee light" and comes to the conclusion that "dawnzer" means "lamp". This leads to her trying to show off her knowledge ("why don't you turn on the dawnzer?"), to the befuddled reactions of her parents and sister. Ramona's kindergarten and first grade classes host an Eric J. and Eric R. They disappear by the time Ramona is in second grade, so maybe they were placed in different classes to prevent confusion. I’ve had Beverly Cleary on my mind for a while now ever since NPR did a story about her (as of this writing, she is 103 years old!), so it suddenly seemed ideal to take a break in the middle of the dystopian novel I’m reading and turn to the gentle adventures of Ramona Quimby and her long-suffering older sister, Beezus.

Jerkass Has a Point: In the last chapter of Ramona's World, Ramona doesn't want to invite Susan to her fourth-grade birthday party, and cites that her too-perfect snobby attitude will ruin the party. Mrs. Quimby tells her not to be rude and invites Susan anyway. Sure enough, Ramona is proven right; Susan says her mother told her to not have cake because the frosting would have Ramona's germs on it, which briefly grosses out the guests. Daisy bluntly says there's nothing wrong with the cake and everyone calls out Susan for her rudeness. A well-known 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. Precocious Crush: Beezus gets one on her sixth-grade teacher. Ramona ends up meeting him when she has to borrow a stapler, immediately takes a liking to him because he treats her like a real person, and decides she'd probably have one on him too if she were in his class. Learning to Ride a Bike: In "Ramona Forever", when Howie's uncle Hobart gives him a unicycle, Howie gives his bicycle away to Ramona. However, when she tries to ride it, she falls and cuts her knee.Break the Cutie: Ramona has an instance of at least one of these in every book except Ramona's World, but the most obvious instances are in Ramona The Brave and Ramona Quimby, Age 8.