[.ca] Ramona the Pest (ISBN 0807273945)

From Amazon.com:
The engaging tale of young Ramona Quimby's first days in kindergarten, Ramona the Pest takes a pint-sized perspective on the trials and delights of beginning school. Ramona can't wait to learn all the important things. But she's disappointed when her teacher can't fill in missing parts of story lines, such as how Mike Mulligan (of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel) went to the bathroom while digging the basement of the town hall. Nonetheless, Ramona loves her teacher, and loves going to school in spite of the torments--having to wear hand-me-down boots, for example, or having to (sometimes) suppress the urge to pull on another girl's "boing-boing" curls. Ramona's energetic take on life appeals to children who have passed through this stage, or who are dealing with a kindergarten-age sibling who is exhibiting Ramona-ish tendencies. (Ages 7 to 12) --Richard Farr

ramona the pest:
I think romona the pest is not ok for me. I don't like it because ramona pull susan's hair.

ramona the pest:
I think ramona the pest is a good book because ramona like davy and ramona pulled susan boing boing curls and ramona talks back to her sister and she gets in trouble by her perents and she got stuck in some mud in her new shoes and howie helped her get out of there

Ranona the pest:
I think the pest is great I Like It because It Is Funny. My favrite part Is whene Ramona pulled Susan hair and whene she got her mask. She went to school and they had a party.

Ramona the Fantabulous:
I'll begin with a confession. I never read the Ramona books as a child. Certainly I'd heard about them (I had a couple friends who wanted to "Boing" my own curls more than once) but I never found a chance or an opportunity to read them in any depth until I reached the ripe old age of 25. Reading them now, I'm sorry I wasn't introduced to them from the start. In this classic story Ramona is a fully realized character. She is a little girl in full bloom. She has good qualities and she has bad qualities, but through it all she seems incredibly "real". Seeing things from Ramona's point of view gives you a better understanding of some of the problems she has in her daily life. Kids will be able to relate to Ramona when she feels she's being teased and wants to feel sorry for herself. Her anger is always understandable, and the fact that the grownups in the book are not always perfect (probably a fairly radical notion in 1968 children's literature) will appeal to all readers. This book instantly reminded me of a book that I did read as a child, "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing", by Judy Blume. Some of Ramona's less charming qualities (such as her obsessive compulsive desire to "Boing" her classmates hair) will possibly remind reads of Joey Pigza as well (though the leap from Ramona to Joey is a very large one). This is an ideal book to read aloud to children in class or other group situations and the original illustrations by Louis Darling (if you can locate an edition containing them) are delightful.

Now she'd be called a "spirited child":
I wasn't very fond of Ramona when I was little. As a bit of a nerd from the very beginning, I just couldn't relate to Ramona's exuberance that always got her into trouble, and I more or less thought of her as a bad girl. But I still carried memories of the book with me into adulthood -- especially Ramona's enchanting way of writing "Q." Fast-forward to parenting a spirited daughter. I re-read the book and decided that I absolutely had to share it with my daughter. I now see Ramona in a whole new light; as the author herself states, Ramona never (well, rarely) really means to be naughty. Most adults just don't understand her -- the way she cannot resist the temptation to boing a beautiful curl, her need for shiny new girls' boots and the glory of stamping through the mud the first day she wears them, her need to know that her teacher loves her. My five-year-old was indeed caught up in Ramona's story, frequently asking me to read another chapter when I had finished one. Ramona became so real to her that she covered her ears when it was clear that Ramona was headed for trouble -- she couldn't bear to listen to the consequences. I may have been too much of a goody-goody to fully appreciate the book earlier, but I certainly enjoy it now and am glad that my daughter enjoys it, too.