Ramona the Pest is the first book in the series from Ramona's own point of view. At last readers get the chance to be inside Ramona's head after witnessing all her pesty ways in previous books. Ramona is in kindergarten. And Ramona's teacher isn't the only one who will find her unforgettable. In my review of Beezus and Ramona, I mentioned how Cleary greatest strength was her ability to capture what it was like to be a kid. That is very true in Ramona the Pest. The writing is PERFECT. Ramona could not understand why grown-ups always talked about how quickly children grew up. Ramona thought growing up was the slowest thing there was, slower even than waiting for Christmas to come. She had been waiting years just to get to kindergarten, and the last half-hour was the slowest part of all.(7)"Ramona's Great Day" Ramona's first day of morning kindergarten. Her teacher is Miss Binney. The days has its ups and downs. But Ramona by the end of the day feels good about this thing called school. But will it last?! This is the chapter where Ramona asks Miss Binney HOW DID MIKE MULLIGAN GO TO THE BATHROOM?! "Boys and girls," she began, and spoke in her clear, distinct way. "The reason the book does not tell us how Mike Mulligan went to the bathroom is that it is not an important part of the story. The story is about digging the basement of the town hall, and that is what the book tells us." Miss Binney spoke as if this explanation ended the matter, but the kindergarten was not convinced. Ramona knew and the rest of the class knew that knowing how to go to the bathroom was important. They were surprised that Miss Binney did not understand, because she had shown them the bathroom the very first thing. Ramona could see there were some things she was not going to learn in school, and along with the rest of the class she stared reproachfully at Miss Binney. (20)"Show and Tell" Howie and Ramona get into a fight over a ribbon. That's the short version. It's a ribbon that Miss Binney gave Howie for "Howie's bunny" that was really Ramona's bunny. You see, Howie's mom thought Howie was upset that he wasn't bringing anything for show and tell. And Ramona's mother made her go in the house to get something--anything--for Howie to take. She picked a rabbit that was mainly loved by their cat. Ramona thinks it should be HER ribbon because it was tied to her bunny. Howie likes it only because it came from the teacher. That and I think he likes to fight with Ramona. So if she didn't want it, would he?! "Seatwork" Adventures and misadventures in the classroom. We get lovely descriptions of some of Ramona's classmates. There is Howie, of course, Davy, the boy she chases and tries to kiss, and Susan, her nemesis. This chapter, Ramona decides to go by Ramona Q and decorate the Q like a cat. I love this chapter because we get to overhear Miss Binney interacting with ALL the children. "Substitute" Ramona is scared of the substitute teacher and doesn't want to be in kindergarten if Miss Binney is absent. She can't go home, or, her mother will know. So where will she go?!"Ramona's Engagement Ring" This chapter is probably one of my FAVORITE chapters from the whole series. In this chapter, Ramona has issues with her boots. She doesn't want hand-me-down brown "boy" boots. She wants pretty RED boots that are obvious girl boots. She does get them eventually. But can she use them responsibly?! This is the chapter where Henry Huggins becomes Ramona's hero...much to Davy's relief. It has Ramona joyfully shouting that she WILL MARRY HENRY HUGGINS. She has a worm engagement ring and everything."The Baddest Witch in the World" The Halloween chapter. Ramona *wants* to be the baddest witch, but, she also wants to be herself. She doesn't want to be unknown. So what will she do when it's costume time?!"The Day Things Went Wrong" Will Ramona be kicked out of kindergarten because she lacks self-control when it comes to touching or pulling Susan's curly hair?! This one has plenty of drama, including a lost tooth which she leaves at school accidentally."Kindergarten Dropout" Ramona still persists that she won't go back to school. Is there anything to be done?! Ramona despaired. Nobody understood. She wanted to behave herself. Except when banging her heels on the bedroom wall, she had always wanted to behave herself. Why couldn't people understood how she felt? She had only touched Susan's hair in the first place because it was so beautiful, and the last time--well, Susan had been so bossy she deserved to have her hair pulled. (202)It was a joy to read Ramona the Pest again.
"No matter what others said, she never thought she was a pest. The people who called her a pest were always bigger and so they could be unfair." --Ramona the Pest, P. 10 "Things had such an unexpected way of turning out all wrong." --Ramona the Pest, P. 79 This book exceeded my expectations with how good it is. For many years Beverly Cleary has proven herself to have a striking understanding of exactly what it means to be a kid, and she succeeds with perhaps more (or at least equal) stunning skill in the pages of this book than in any other that she has written. I have never been a Kindergarten girl, but I identified with Ramona's problems and joys just as closely as if I not only had been a Kindergarten girl at one time, but still was one. Beverly Cleary has a rare and special ability to bring the emotions of her characters home to the reader, no matter who that reader might be, because anyone who has feelings will recognize their own misunderstood parts in Ramona's personality. Ramona the Pest is quite funny, and touching, as well, and the story is constructed so deftly and with such heart that it is hard to imagine a reader who would not be won over by Beverly Cleary and Ramona. I might still slightly favor "Ramona Quimby, Age 8", but this one is right there in the same discussion. Ramona the Pest is a nice, easy-flowing read, and a book that I will remember fondly for a long time. As the tagline says on the cover, "Anyone who calls Ramona a pest just doesn't understand Ramona!" I am happy to say that I think I do understand Ramona, and I would not think of calling her a pest! :-) "People who called her a pest did not understand that a littler person sometimes had to be a little bit noisier and a little bit more stubborn in order to be noticed at all." --Ramona the Pest, P. 162 "
What do You think about Ramona The Pest (2000)?
“Ramona the Pest” is the first of the “Ramona” series written by Beverly Cleary. This book introduces the lovable character, Ramona. In this particular book, Ramona is beginning her first year of school, Kindergarten. You soon learn about what kind of character Ramona is, a wild child. She loves horsing around, joking around, and being the typical playful kid. Her older sister Beezus, easily gets annoyed by Ramona and refers to her as a “pest”. In school, Ramona has trouble paying attention and listening to her teacher, Miss Binney. While in Kindergarten, Ramona begins liking a boy named Davy. She constantly chases Davy around at recess in hopes of kissing him. Susan, a fellow pupil of Ramona’s, has hair that Ramona has wanted to pull since the day she meets her. One day, Ramona cracks and pulls Susan’s hair. Ramona is then suspended from school and really saddened by it. One day while suspended, Howie, a fellow classmate, stops by Ramona’s home with a baby tooth she had lost in school one day. Her spirits were more upbeat once this occurred. This book is a great transitional book. I remember being in third grade where I read the entire series. They’re funny and enjoyable for any young reader who is moving from strictly picture books to chapter books.
—Natalie Rion
In Margaret Donaldson's quintessential 'Children's Minds,' she discusses the importance of 'decentering' in the language we use with children. Teachers know more than students, and thus often make false assumptions about shared knowledge: 'The better you know something, the more risk there is of behaving egocentrically in relation to your knowledge.' Donaldson finds an example of such egocentric behavior in a story from Laurie Lee's autobiography 'Cider with Rosie.' After his first day at school, Lee furiously tells his mother that he had been cheated. He was told to 'sit there for the present.' Yet he never received his present. 'I sat there all day but I never got it. I ain't going back there again.'Where Piaget claims young children's inability to communicate well is a result of their inability to decenter, Donaldson turns that premise around in citing Lee. We sometimes miss children's true potential because we assume they understand our language. We could get better responses and better learning if we really listened and thought about how we are saying what we are saying.Donaldson's use of Laurie Lee's anecdote had a powerful effect on me. Then, at a talk by Marcia Henry, the author of the indispensable 'Unlocking Literacy,' Henry brought up the impact Donaldson's citing of 'Cider with Rosie' had on her. Donaldson, Henry and I could have found the same example of egocentric language in Beverly Cleary's 'Ramona the Pest,' in which Miss Binney tells Ramona on her first day of kindergarten to 'sit here for the present.' The difference is that Miss Binney realizes the source of confusion, and shocks Ramona by apologizing to her in front of the class: 'I'm sorry....It's all my fault. I should have used different words.' Miss Binney is a cool teacher, unlike Laurie Lee's, and for that matter Ramona's first grade teacher, Mrs. Griggs, whom we meet in 'Ramona the Brave.'All of the above leads to my conclusion that the Ramona books, which follow Ramona Quimby from preschool into fourth grade, are just as valuable as texts for early education and child psychology as any other work. Cleary lets us in on the way children think and how their thinking develops with great insight, and of course, great humor.Consider Cleary's treatment of this novel's eponymous moniker, despised by Ramona: '...Ramona did not consider herself a pest. People who called her a pest did not understand that a littler person sometimes had to be a little bit noisier and a little bit more stubborn in order to be noticed at all.'Highly recommended.
—Lars Guthrie
What do I like about Ramona?I like that she's innocent. She's terribly curious and interested in the world around her. She's definitely stubborn and tries too hard for attention, but she's not mischievous.That mischievousness is a problem I have with Junie B. Jones and her ilk. The messages from those books seem to be that being sneaky, mouthy, disrespectful...as long as you're clever about it, is a great way to be.What I like particularly about Ramona the Pest is the way Beverly Cleary explores the emotions of this little girl whose thoughts for action definitely outrun her thoughts of consequences. I was touched by the way that Ramona ached when she thought her teacher didn't like her any more.I also like Ramona for the endless laughs.
—Cami
