Ramona the Pest

“‘I am not a pest,’ Ramona Quimby told her big sister Beezus.” 

This is the first line of Ramona the Pest. It immediately signals to the reader that Ramona Quimby is going to be an unusual little girl. The fact that Ramona refutes that she’s a “pest” also gives the reader important information about Ramona’s character; namely, that she is headstrong, unafraid to make her opinions known, and perhaps not exactly a “pest,” as her sister Beezus would have us believe. 

“Nobody but a genuine grown-up was going to take her to school. If she had to, she would make a great big noisy fuss, and when Ramona made a great big noisy fuss, she usually got her own way. Great big noisy fusses were often necessary when a girl was the youngest member of her family and the youngest person on her block.” 

Ramona refuses to let Mary Jane, a friend of Beezus, walk her to school. The reader is taken through Ramona’s logic: Only a “genuine grown-up” should be allowed to take her to school, since older kids like Mary Jane are inclined to make themselves seem more grown up by treating younger kids like Ramona like a baby—and there is nothing Ramona dislikes more than being treated like a baby. This passage highlights two features of Ramona’s psychology: Her desire to not appear like a baby and why it is occasionally necessary for her to cause a “great noisy fuss.” 

“Ramona considered. Kindergarten had not turned out as she had expected. Still, even though she had not been given a present and Miss Binney did not love her, she had liked being with boys and girls her own age.” 

The reader is privy to Ramona’s thoughts and therefore learns the logic that Ramona uses to come to different conclusions. Here, the reader learns that, after her first day of kindergarten, Ramona seems to believe that