Beezus and Ramona

By Beverly Cleary and Jacqueline Rogers

Newbery Award winner Beverly Cleary delivers a humorous portrayal of the ups and downs of sisterhood. Both the younger and older siblings of the family will enjoy this book.

Having a little sister like four-year-old Ramona isn’t always easy for Beezus Quimby. With a wild imagination, disregard for order, and an appetite for chaos, Ramona makes it hard for Beezus to be the responsible older sister she knows she ought to be…especially when Ramona threatens to ruin Beezus’s birthday party. Will Beezus find the patience to handle her little sister before Ramona turns her big day into a complete disaster? 

"An important reminder of the good that can come when you throw yourself fully into any situation and draw outside the lines," says Brightly in their article "12 Girls from Fiction Who Are Their Own Heroes."

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 6, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061972140

Beverly Cleary

Beverly Cleary is one of America's most beloved authors. As a child, she struggled with reading and writing. But by third grade, after spending much time in her public library in Portland, Oregon, she found her skills had greatly improved. Before long, her school librarian was saying that she should write children's books when she grew up. Instead she became a librarian. When a young boy asked her, "Where are the books about kids like us?" she remembered her teacher's encouragement and was inspired to write the books she'd longed to read but couldn't find when she was younger. She based her funny stories on her own neighborhood experiences and the sort of children she knew. And so, the Klickitat Street gang was born! Mrs. Cleary's books have earned her many prestigious awards, including the American Library Association's Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, presented to her in recognition of her lasting contribution to children's literature. Dear Mr. Henshaw won the Newbery Medal, and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and Ramona and Her Father have been named Newbery Honor Books. Her characters, including Beezus and Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Ralph, the motorcycle-riding mouse, have delighted children for generations.

Book preview

1

BEEZUS AND HER LITTLE SISTER

Beatrice Quimby’s biggest problem was her little sister Ramona. Beatrice, or Beezus (as everyone called her, because that was what Ramona had called her when she first learned to talk), knew other nine-year-old girls who had little sisters who went to nursery school, but she did not know anyone with a little sister like Ramona.

Beezus felt that the biggest trouble with four-year-old Ramona was that she was just plain exasperating. If Ramona drank lemonade through a straw, she blew into the straw as hard as she could to see what would happen. If she played with her finger paints in the front yard, she wiped her hands on the neighbors’ cat. That was the exasperating sort of thing Ramona did. And then there was the way she behaved about her favorite book.

It all began one afternoon after school when Beezus was sitting in her father’s big chair embroidering a laughing teakettle on a pot holder for one of her aunts for Christmas. She was trying to embroider this one neatly, because she planned to give it to Aunt Beatrice, who was Mother’s younger sister and Beezus’s most special aunt.

With gray thread Beezus carefully outlined the steam coming from the teakettle’s spout and thought about her pretty young aunt, who was always so gay and so understanding. No wonder she was Mother’s favorite sister. Beezus hoped to be exactly like Aunt Beatrice when she grew up. She wanted to be a fourth-grade teacher and drive a yellow convertible and live in an apartment house with an elevator and a buzzer that opened the front door. Because she was named after Aunt Beatrice, Beezus felt she might be like her in other ways, too.

While Beezus was sewing, Ramona, holding a mouth organ in her teeth, was riding around the living room on her tricycle. Since she needed both hands to steer the tricycle, she could blow in and out on only one note. This made the harmonica sound as if it were groaning oh dear, oh dear over and over again.

Beezus tried to pay no attention. She tied a small knot in the end of a piece of red thread to embroider the teakettle’s laughing mouth. Conceal a knot as you would a secret, Grandmother always said.

Inhaling and exhaling into her mouth organ, Ramona closed her eyes and tried to pedal around the coffee table without looking.

Ramona! cried Beezus. Watch where you’re going!

When Ramona crashed into the coffee table, she opened her eyes again. Oh dear, oh dear, moaned the harmonica. Around and around pedaled Ramona, inhaling and exhaling.

Beezus looked up from her pot holder. Ramona, why don’t you play with Bendix for a while? Bendix was Ramona’s favorite doll. Ramona thought Bendix was the most beautiful name in the world.

Ramona took the harmonica out of her mouth. No, she said. Read my Scoopy book to me.

Oh, Ramona, not Scoopy, protested Beezus. We’ve read Scoopy so many times.

Instead of answering, Ramona put her harmonica between her teeth again and pedaled around the room, inhaling and exhaling. Beezus had to lift her feet every time Ramona rode by.

The knot in Beezus’s thread pulled through the material of her pot holder, and she gave up trying to conceal it as she would a secret and tied a bigger knot. Finally, tired of trying to keep her feet out of Ramona’s way, she put down her embroidery. All right, Ramona, she said. If I read about Scoopy, will you stop riding your tricycle around the living room and making so much noise?

Yes, said Ramona, and climbed off her tricycle. She ran into the bedroom she shared with Beezus and returned with a battered, dog-eared, sticky book, which she handed to Beezus. Then she climbed into the big chair beside Beezus and waited expectantly.

Reflecting that Ramona always managed to get her own way, Beezus gingerly took the book and looked at it with a feeling of great dislike. It was called The Littlest Steam Shovel. On the cover was a picture of a steam shovel with big tears coming out of its eyes. How could a steam shovel have eyes, Beezus thought and, scarcely looking at the words, began for what seemed like the hundredth or maybe the thousandth time, Once there was a little steam shovel named Scoopy. One day Scoopy said, ‘I do not want to be a steam shovel. I want to be a bulldozer.’

You skipped, interrupted Ramona.

No, I didn’t, said Beezus.

Yes, you did, insisted Ramona. "You’re supposed to say, ‘I want to be a big bulldozer.’"

Oh, all right, said Beezus crossly. ‘I want to be a big bulldozer.’

Ramona smiled contentedly and Beezus continued reading. ‘G-r-r-r,’ said Scoopy, doing his best to sound like a bulldozer.

Beezus read on through Scoopy’s failure to be a bulldozer. She read about Scoopy’s wanting to be a trolley bus (Beep-beep, honked Ramona), a locomotive (A-hooey, a-hooey, wailed Ramona), and a pile driver (Clunk! Clunk! shouted Ramona). Beezus was glad when she finally reached the end of the story and Scoopy learned it was best for little steam shovels to be steam shovels. There! she said with relief, and closed the book. She always felt foolish trying to make noises like machinery.

Clunk! Clunk! yelled Ramona, jumping down from the chair. She pulled her harmonica out of the pocket of her overalls and climbed on her tricycle. Oh dear, oh dear, she inhaled and exhaled.

Ramona! cried Beezus. You promised you’d stop if I read Scoopy to you.

I did stop, said Ramona, when she had taken the harmonica out of her mouth. Now read it again.

Ramona Geraldine Quimby! Beezus began, and stopped. It was useless to argue with Ramona. She wouldn’t pay any attention. Why do you like that story anyway? Beezus asked. Steam shovels can’t talk, and I feel silly trying to make all those noises.

"I don’t, said Ramona, and wailed, A-hooey, a-hooey," with great feeling before she put her harmonica back in her mouth.

Beezus watched her little sister pedal furiously around the living room, inhaling and exhaling. Why did she have to like a book about a steam shovel anyway? Girls weren’t supposed to like machinery. Why couldn’t she like something quiet, like Peter Rabbit?

Mother, who had bought The Littlest Steam Shovel at the supermarket to keep Ramona quiet while she shopped one afternoon, was so tired of Scoopy that she always managed to be too busy to read to Ramona. Father came right out and said he was fed up with frustrated steam shovels and he would not read that book to Ramona and, furthermore, no one else was to read it to her while he was in the house. And that was that.

So only Beezus was left to read Scoopy to Ramona. Plainly something had to be done and it was up to Beezus to do it. But what? Arguing with Ramona was a waste of time. So was appealing to her better nature. The best thing to do with Ramona, Beezus had learned, was to think up something to take the place of whatever her mind was fixed upon. And what could take the place of The Littlest Steam Shovel? Another book, of course, a better book, and the place to find it was

Reviews for Beezus and Ramona

[jljaina · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This suck such a fun, playful read. Ramona is adorable and annoying in all the ways a sister can be! I spent to much time laughing through this.

Your really feel for Beezus and the caught in the middle dilemma she is in but I can't help but cheer on the little sister. Her antics are fantastic! It made me grateful for the age gap between my brothers and I. I didn't have to deal with as much of this. Amusing as she was, Ramona was also a little terror that could drive anyone crazy.

Great lessons for kids in this book. From learning right and wrong, to how to apologize, acceptance and what it really means to be a sister. I think kids can gain a lot from reading this book Especially if they have a sibling (older or younger).

The relationships in this family are very real. Both the adults behavior and the kids. It was easy to relate to the different characters. The main thing that doesn't fit in todays world is the freedom and "safety" young children have. There is a distinct lack of adult supervision.

Over great for elementary kids to read and enjoy. Lots of fun!

[comfypants · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A 1955 children's novel.A nine-year-old is annoyed with her four-year-old sister.C+ (Okay).It's harmlessly pleasant, and even has a laugh or two, but it doesn't give me any reason to care about it. It probably doesn't help that Beezus, the uptight older sibling, is hard to relate to, since she gets upset whenever something entertaining happens. But mostly I think it's just because they're realistic children, doing ordinary things. Not for me.(Oct. 2022)

[Amy E. Moore · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book sucks like I suck a sucker. it is so darn boring that I wanted ta puke. dis is de worst evahhhh

[Raji · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I liked that Ramona was naughty and that the book had different consequences about 2 sisters

[Michelle Carshalton · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Awesome. I loved the way it told me about her.

[Arionna · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Awwww this on Disney channel

[bell7_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

At the age of 9, Beatrice Quimby - known as Beezus to everyone, because that's how her 4-year-old sister Ramona pronounced her name - has to deal with all the trials of having an annoying younger sister.

I LOVED the Ramona books as a kid, though the ones that stick out for me most are the later ones. I'd forgotten what a pest toddler Ramona was and how exasperating she was to both her sister and her parents. This one is really told more from Beezus's point of view, and you sympathize with the older sister for sure (though a lot of the trouble Ramona gets into is hilarious to read about, if not actually experience). This book was first published in 1955, and it definitely shows its age in some ways - Mother goes "marketing" not (grocery) shopping, and there's a radio and phonograph store, and Beezus plays Sacajawea for the PTA. But it also nails family dynamics and complex emotions between siblings, and so much of it is very funny.

[jess987 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

amazing

[Naisha · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really like the character Beezus but Ramona is kind of annoying to her and if I was Beezus I will be annoyed to

[blbooks-14314 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First sentence: Beezus felt that the biggest trouble with four-year-old Ramona was that she was just plain exasperating. If Ramona drank lemonade through a straw, she blew into the straw as hard as she could to see what would happen.


Unlike other books in the Ramona series, this one is narrated by Beezus. Like all other books in the Ramona series, it has a just-right feel about it. Beverly Cleary's greatest talent may be in her capturing what it feels like to be a kid.

Beezus, as you probably know, is Ramona's big sister. Ramona does steal the show in almost every book in which she appears. There's something unforgettable about her. But though the focus is on Ramona, this is still very much Beezus' book. It captures how she feels about her family, about Ramona.

"Beezus and Her Little Sister." Ramona LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to have The Littlest Steam Shovel read to her. Her parents are unwilling to read it to her--they have come to have no tolerance for it. But Beezus, well, she'll read it to Ramona, not that she likes it, but, she'll give in now and then. She gets the idea to take Ramona to the library to get a brand new book--for two weeks. Ramona picks a new book, but, it is still about steam shovels. She likes it so much, that she does something NAUGHTY so she can keep it for always. What will Beezus do since it was checked out on her card? Just how sympathetic will the librarian be?

"Beezus and Her Imagination" Beezus is in an art class. Ramona isn't supposed to be in the class with her, she's supposed to be playing outside in the sandbox. But on this occasion, Beezus finds Ramona in class with her. Could she get inspired by her sister's imaginary pet?! Could she earn her teacher's attention?!

"Ramona and Ribsy" Beezus invites Henry Huggins (and his dog, Ribsy) to her house to play checkers. It doesn't go well. Both Ribsy and Ramona have fits of sorts. And Ribsy ends up locked in the bathroom?! Beezus wishes Ramona was more like other people's sisters.

"Ramona and the Apples" Beezus is supposed to be watching Ramona while their mother does the grocery shopping. But. Ramona proves too much to handle. She sneaks into the basement and has her way with all the apples...taking one bite and just one bite from each apple. Will Beezus get in trouble? Can anything good come from all those ruined apples?

"A Party at the Quimbys" Ramona decides to have a party and invite other kids over to the house--without permission of course. What will Beezus and their mother do? This one ends in a parade. Among the guests, Howie and Willa Jean.

"Beezus's Birthday" Will Beezus have a cake for her tenth birthday?! It might not be as easy as you might think. Not with Ramona around. But with a little help from Aunt Beatrice, all might be well after all. Hint: If you have a sister like Ramona, don't read the story of Hansel and Gretel to her when your cake is in the oven!

I love the Ramona series. I do. I love, love, love the Ramona books. I think I read them dozens of more times than the Little House books. (I've recently reread these too.) I'm not sure Beezus and Ramona is my favorite of the series, but, it's a great start to a great series.

[sydania123 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I didn't get to read because I don't know how too

[quondame · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I suppose that it's possible for an older sister to feel guilt because of not loving her younger sibling all the time, but it doesn't ring any bells. Now feeling inadequate for not receiving praise for something the little darling does, yep, that one hits. The resolutions are a bit overly sugared.

[sjgirl-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A childhood favorite, it had been a long time since I’d last read this and I’m so pleased that I loved it as an adult, too.

Beezus is nine years old and sometimes finds it challenging to be a big sister to four year old mischief-maker Ramona.

Ramona is most definitely bratty and attention-seeking and she’d be a lot to live with, but as a reader I adore her, more often than not she’s funny and clever and it’s still refreshing to see a female character who doesn’t remotely care about behaving perfectly.

I really loved Beezus, too. I don’t think I had a proper appreciation for her back when I was a kid distracted as I was by Ramona’s antics. Beezus is every bit as well-crafted as Ramona just in a quieter way. Her frustration with her sister followed by a guilty conscience whenever she doesn’t tolerate Ramona as much as she thinks she should just feels so honest and it’s certainly relatable for anyone who’s loved someone who is a handful at times.

While Beezus playing Sacajawea at school would not fly these days (at least she took genuine pride in the role), otherwise this book has aged nicely, there’s a certain timelessness to it, even Aunt Beatrice still comes off as cool with her yellow convertible, you can totally see a girl of any era idolizing her.

I really liked how learning more about the mom and the aunt’s relationship is something of an epiphany for Beezus as far as her relationship with Ramona and it’s such a real moment, too, capturing that revelation you have as a child where it suddenly occurs to you that once upon a time the adults in your life were kids, too.

Those moments with Beezus grappling with her feelings about Ramona and the subsequent conversation with her mom and aunt bring a really nice bit of depth to the book while Ramona’s purposeful disasters provide plenty of fun.

[fingerpost_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The moral of Beezus and Ramona is that it's okay not to love your sister ~all~ the time. And that's a good thing, because Ramona is quite the little brat. My sympathies were all with Beezus, almost 10, and having to care for her frequently horrible 4 year old sister so much of the time. But of course, they both love each other, and that's plain throughout the book. But they are almost 6 years apart in age, and have wildly different personalities.
Each chapter is pretty much its own little short story. Other than having the same characters and themes there isn't much linking one chapter to the next. In each story, Ramona finds a new way to behave dreadfully and Beezus has to figure out how to deal with it.
I got the impression that when Beverly Cleary wrote this first book in the series, way back in 1955, she had Beezus in mind as the main character, but judging from the titles, the other books in the series evidently follow Ramona more closely. Hopefully she's not quite as horrid as she grows older in later books. Since two of the latter ones won Newbery Honor awards, I assume the series improves. (Not that this is a bad book, but it's not a great one either.)

[coffeehag · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What crazy thing will that impossible little sister do next?! Join Beezus as she gets annoyed with, and sometimes even freaked out by, Ramona's shenanigans. This page turner will have you hurrying to the bookstore for the next book in the series, eager to find out what terrible naughtiness Ramona is up to now. Will Beezus ever get a moment's peace? You'll have to read it to find out!

[capiam1234 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kids enjoyed this a lot, especially when they can see a little of themselves in Ramona and Beazus.

[sweetbeebecky · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have read this book over and over again, beginning when I was a child, and it has never grown old. My youngest daughter Maggie now loves this series, and we all enjoyed the movie that was based upon it. Beverly Cleary writes about Beezus (Ramona's nickname for her sister Beatrice), age 9, and her annoying, clever, rambunctious, loving sister Ramona, age 4, describing the seemingly constant antics that Ramona engages in to the embarrassment of poor Beezus. I'm sure that many young girls will see themselves in either Beezus or Ramona, relating to what it's like to have a sibling that you love all of the time, but don't necessarily enjoy each and every day. There seems to be no end to the ideas that Ramona comes up with to make life more interesting, including powdering her nose with marshmallows. This is a great book to use as read aloud, which I have done with a third grade class, and is also wonderful for teaching manners and family values, and for just plain good entertainment!

[darlenesbooknook · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this book aloud to my daughters.

Cleary was one of my favourite authors as a child, and I loved the Ramona Quimby series. It was a pleasure to re-read this one with my girls. Ramona is hilarious, and we all laughed out loud at her antics. My girls are nearly the same age as Ramona and Beezus in this book, so it was especially fun for them to read how other sisters their own age relate to each other...and maybe they see that they don't have it so bad :)

We will be reading the rest of the series together.

[innermurk · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Being a Ramona lover, I was glad to see this book that showed Beezus' perspective of her pesky little sister. It allowed me to sympathize more with the older sister, and yet did not diminish my enjoyment of Ramona and her ability to attract, and cause trouble.

[foggidawn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beatrice Quimby's little sister is so annoying. She's loud and boisterous, messy and impatient -- and she bestowed the nickname "Beezus" on Beatrice, back when she couldn't pronounce names correctly. There are times when Beezus doesn't feel like she loves her little sister, and that troubles her -- shouldn't sisters love each other all the time?

I'm a fellow oldest sibling, but I've never had a lot of sympathy for Beezus in this book. To me, she comes across as whiny. While I can sympathize with having a rambunctious younger sibling, I never feel a lot of affection for Beezus in this book. After this, the series shifts focus to Ramona, who is a much more dynamic character. Poor Beezus -- she gets the short end of the stick in this series.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've been reading this series with my 4-year-old via audio and it's so much fun. She loves hearing about Ramona's misadventures. From an unexpected party to a birthday cake for Beezus, this book offered some great lessons for a big sister who is adjusting to a whirlwind little sister.

[tehya13 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Reading about Ramona's little mischievous activities really made me angry but overall good book 9/10 lol

[cougargirl1967 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So much fun; I know lots of kids can relate to these two!

[cubsfan3410 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this with my daughter - we're ready for the movie.
She's anxious to read more Ramona! YEA!

[jclheatherm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another one of my favorite book series - you can't stay mad or stay away from Ramona Quimby for very long.

[emma_manolis · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I think the writing in this book is seriously outdated. I read these books when I was younger, but I found that I didn't really have any memory of whether or not I thought they were any good. I think the reason I had a lack of memory is because this book is simply not memorable. There are so moments that are fun but overall this book isn't anything special. I think Beverly Cleary has other books that a so much better.

[hamburgerclan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't review every book I read--some small tomes I'll just run through to kill time, or sate my curiosity, and then never give them a second thought. This was going to be one of those books, until I laughed out loud. What had happened was that I was killing time in my daughter's second grade classroom. (She's a teacher, by the way, not a student.) I noticed this book in the classroom library, and since I had fond memories of reading Ramona the Pest when I was a kid, I figured I'd read a bit of this instead of the book I had in my backpack. Anyway, Beezus and Ramona is about Beezus Quimby, a nine year old girl in 1950s Oregon, and the troubles she has with her four year old sister Ramona. At first I enjoyed reading a book written in the 1950s--a different world in many ways. Soon enough, my enjoyment was garnished with chuckles over Ramona's antics. She is the chaos bringer, the one who manages to see and act in the world in a way that is different from the average person and who is quite disconcerting to those, like Beezus, who expect a certain order to their lives. Anyway, a few chapters in I got to the laugh out loud joke--an incident which revealed to me that not only is Ms. Cleary able to write about crazy shenanigans, but she has a clever wit in her tool kit as well. So from that point, I knew that I wanted to finish reading the book (easily done) and tell you all to check it out.
--J.

[ibeth_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My little one and I have been thoroughly enjoying this series for bedtime reading. (My daughter refers to this sisterly duo as "Beezus and Fermona" lol.) Reading them is a fun nostalgia trip for me, recalling not only the days when I read them as a child, but also the days when children had a lot more freedom than they do today.

[othemts · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first in Cleary's series of Ramona books.  I listened to it with my daughter at bedtimes.  In many ways my four-year old daughter IS Ramona Quimby, creative and mischief and sometimes seems indifferent to the chaos she causes.  So this is a very true to life book, and it feels oddly contemporary despite being published in 1955.  Unlike later books, this story is told from the point of view of Beezus who has to deal with a little sister who wants to hear an annoying book about steam shovel, colors in her library book, looks her friend's dog in the bathroom, invites neighborhood children to a party that no one else in the family knew about, and destroys not one but two of Beezus' birthday cakes.  Beezus has to deal with the guilt that sometimes she doesn't love Ramona.  Near the end of the book <spoiler alert> Beezus mother and Aunt Beatrice reminisce about having a similarly contentious relationship as children but are able to laugh about it as adults, giving Beezus some comfort.  It's a pretty brilliant book and I'm glad I'm getting to hear it now having missed it as a child.
Favorite Passages:
I am too a Merry Sunshine!

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A simply marvelous series that is only finally beginning to be dated just a tiny bit. Will always be worthy, though.