Ramona Quimby

Ramona Geraldine Quimby
First appearance	Henry Huggins (1950)
Last appearance	Ramona's World (1999)
Created by	Beverly Cleary
Portrayed by	Sarah Polley (Ramona) Joey King (Ramona and Beezus)
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Imaginator and Beezus' Best Friend
Family	Mr. Robert Quimby (Father) Mrs. Dorothy Quimby (Mother) Beezus Quimby (Older Sister & Best Friend) Roberta Quimby (Younger Sister) Beatrice (Aunt) Howie Kemp (Uncle Hobart's nephew) Picky - Picky (Late pet Cat)

Ramona Geraldine Quimby is a fictional character in an eponymous series by Beverly Cleary. She starts out in the Henry Huggins series as the pestering little sister of Henry's friend Beatrice, his new best friend, called "Beezus" by Ramona and her family. She was given a larger role in the novel Beezus and Ramona, where Ramona appears to be a very undisciplined little girl, doing relativity awful things and getting away with it close to completely unpunished. The series then concentrated on Ramona from nursery school to 4th grade, touching on social issues such as a parent losing their job, financial instability, the death of a family pet, school bullies, divorce, marriage, sibling relations and experiencing the addition of a new sibling, and more, all of which explore growing up in middle-class America.

Character overview

Ramona Quimby lives in Portland, Oregon's Grant Park neighborhood on Klickitat Street.

During her earlier appearances, Ramona was depicted as an imaginative but infuriating nursery schooler, the younger sister and best friend of Beatrice Quimby who often insisted upon tagging along with her older sister and her friends, and often managed to cause them agitation or sometimes even spoil their fun with her imaginative mischief. She appears to be a very undisciplined little girl who gets away with terrible things she does, such as inviting her whole class to her house for a party without giving any notification to her family, or biting into lots of apples only once just for attention. However, Ramona saw her first major role when the author decided to focus on her viewpoint more than that of other characters in the book Ramona the Pest. Here, Ramona is portrayed as an anxious, curious little girl about to start kindergarten who is in a hurry to mature, although she frequently and unintentionally manages to annoy those around her; she tugs at a classmate's curls out of curiosity and winds up being suspended from school, she disrupts naptime for her fellow pupils while striving to earn the position of "Wake-Up Fairy" for the day, and misunderstands the lyrics to the national anthem. From then onward, the series shifts to divert focus to Ramona's point of view and years of elementary school, chronicling her experiences throughout those years. Ramona tries to behave with maturity and is in a rush to grow up, although things frequently do not go as planned and end in mortification for Ramona. Throughout the series of "Ramona and Beezus"- "Ramona's World" Ramona likes car names. In "Ramona the Pest" she has her doll named Chevrolet and has her class laughed at her until her teacher comes to her rescue. In "Ramona Forever" she suggests to name her younger sibling Aston Martin.

Ramona maintains her active imagination throughout the entire series. She daydreams about earning riches and wealth for her family after her father loses his job in Ramona and her Father by starring in television commercials. She designs an intelligent-looking paper owl as a craft project in the first grade that was copied by a fellow student named Susan Kushner, who received credit and praise for her own owl which Ramona later damaged out of rage in Ramona the Brave. She frequently pretends to be a rabbit in Ramona and her Mother. She became an older sister at the end of Ramona Forever to a baby girl named Roberta Day Quimby, and finally received satisfaction regarding her age towards the end of the final book in the series, Ramona's World, at her tenth birthday party. It is during the celebration that she makes amends with her rival throughout the series, Susan Kushner, after learning about her constant striving for perfection.

Ramona's age

When Ramona started out in the Henry Huggins books, she was two until four. She was also this age in Beezus and Ramona. She is five years old in Henry and the Clubhouse and Ramona the Pest. In Ramona the Brave, Ramona is six years old. In Ramona and Her Mother and Ramona and Her Father, Ramona is seven years old. In Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and Ramona Forever, Ramona is eight years old. In a book that is her last, which is Ramona's World, Ramona starts out nine years old, and turns ten at the end. As her age increases, Ramona's maturity greatly increases as well. At age ten, she is still very rambunctious and imaginative but is now better able to understand the perspectives of adults and friends and the needs they might have.

External links

• Official Beverly Cleary Website
• Ramona Quimby at the Internet Movie Database
• "Statue of Ramona". Beverly Cleary Memorial Garden. Retrieved 2012-04-26.