Ramona (series)

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Ramona Quimby is the central character in a popular series of children's books by Beverly Cleary. The books have been adapted for television and later inspired the 1993 dance hit classic, "Ramona Get Your Beeswax".

The main action concerns Ramona Quimby, her family including her sister Beatrice (known as Beezus), and various events around her Klickitat Street neighborhood in Portland, Oregon.

1 Book series
- 1.1 Book list
- 1.2 Characters
2 Television series
- 2.1 Episode list
3 External links

[edit] Book series

The Ramona books grew out of Cleary's earlier Henry Huggins books and take place in the same continuity and neighborhood. In the Henry Huggins books, Beezus was one of Henry's neighbors and Ramona was her younger sister and mostly a pest to Henry, Beezus, and the other older children.

After three Henry Huggins books, Cleary wrote Beezus and Ramona, a novel in which Beezus was the central character and in which the plot revolved around Beezus' frustrations with her little sister.

Later, after finishing the Henry Huggins series, Cleary wrote Ramona the Pest, the first book proper in the Ramona series. It featured Ramona entering school for the first time as a kindergartner. The succeeding books showed Ramona growing up and advancing through grades, usually at the rate of one grade over two books. One interesting plot device Cleary used was to write each book as if it took place during the current day at the time of writing, even though the books were published years apart. In this way, the later Ramona books appear to take place in the 1980s or later, even though the earlier Ramona books and the Henry Huggins books took place in the 1950s. This is never explicitly mentioned in the novels, however; dates are not given, and the children of the stories are designed to appeal to real children in any time period.

Henry Huggins was published in 1950. The last Ramona book, Ramona's World, was published in 1999, after a 15 year hiatus from Ramona books.

The books have had three illustrators: Louis Darling, Alan Tiegreen and in 2006 the Ramona books came out with new illustrations by Tracy Dockray.

In 2006, Cleary was looking over a movie script to make Ramona and Her Father a movie. She also celebrated her 90th birthday.

[edit] Book list

Ramona the Pest (kindergarten)
Ramona the Brave (1st grade)
Ramona and Her Father (2nd grade)
Ramona and Her Mother (2nd grade)
Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (3rd grade)
Ramona Forever (3rd grade)
Ramona's World (4th grade)

[edit] Characters

Ramona Quimby- The main character. Ramona appears as a 10 year old girl with brown hair. Daughter of Robert and Dorothy Quimby. Younger sister of Beezus Quimby and older sister of Roberta Day Quimby. She is best friends with Howie Kemp and Daisy Kidd.
Beezus Quimby
Mr. Quimby
Mrs. Quimby
Yard Ape
Howie Kemp
Roberta Quimby
Daisy Kidd
Grandpa Day
Aunt Bea Day-Kemp
Uncle Hobart Kemp
Granny Kemp
Mrs. Larson
Willa Jean Kemp
Jeremy Kidd
Mrs. Kidd

[edit] Television series

Based on the popular children's series, Eight-year-old Ramona Quimby feels that no one really understands her. She's bright, imaginative, and according to her older sister Beezus, a "pest." Every day she tries to find out more about herself and her world, with an optimism that only children possess. The series follows Ramona's adventures in school and at home as her family struggles with financial woes and the coming of a new baby.