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Tuesday, August 03, 1999 By Karen MacPherson, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Rejoice, school-age readers -- Ramona is back!
One of the most popular and enduring characters in America's children's literature, Ramona -- aka Ramona Geraldine Quimby -- has returned after a 15-year hiatus in a new book, "Ramona's World" (Morrow, $15).
Fortunately, Newbery Medal-winning author Beverly Cleary hasn't lost her touch. "Ramona's World" has the same vigor and punch as the other seven books about the Portland, Ore., girl who is the living definition of the words "strong-willed" and "spunky" and "stubborn."
In fact, Cleary says it was Ramona's refusal to take "no" for an answer that led her to write another book.
"I thought I was through with Ramona. But Ramona wouldn't go away," Cleary says in an interview released by her publisher. "As I went about my daily life, I would think about what Ramona would say or what Ramona would do. Finally, she just insisted, 'Come on now, sit down and write the book!' "
Although Cleary is now in her 80s, she has an uncanny knack for reflecting the lives, thoughts and conversations of children. And that's not all -- Cleary gets it exactly right, showing how a kindergartner would act or how a third-grader would feel. Cleary's Ramona books aren't trendy, and they're securely set in a middle-class family. But they appeal to all kinds of children, both boys and girls, because they get to the heart of childhood.
As the book opens, Ramona is entering the fourth grade, and all the proper fourth-grade sentiments are there: The idea that boys are both yucky and the tiniest bit interesting; the desperate need for a best friend; the desire to be given responsibility (and earn some money in the bargain). In other words, Ramona's world is expanding, and now includes a baby sister named Roberta and Ramona's first girlfriend, Daisy Kidd.
What's so endearing about the irrepressible Ramona, however, is how little she changes. Oh, she's gotten more mature, and no longer has those screaming, pounding-the-floor tantrums that the nursery-school-age Ramona used to such good effect in her first book, "Beezus and Ramona," published in 1955.
Yet, the core of Ramona is there. She still has her feistiness, her eternal optimism, her endless enthusiasm and her fierce determination to conquer whatever obstacles appear before her. Ramona will -- and does -- take on the world, much to the open-mouthed admiration of her legion of literary fans. Ramona says and does the things most children would say and do, if only they had her courage -- and her foolhardiness.
As Cleary writes in "Ramona the Pest": "She was a girl who could not wait. Life was so interesting she had to find out what happened next."
Cleary hasn't varied the structure of her books about Ramona. Each revolves around a school year and a change in the life of the Quimby family. And always, there is the often-prickly relationship between Ramona and her near-perfect sister Beezus, whose real name, "Beatrice," was telescoped into "Beezus" by Ramona.
The first day of the fourth grade is promising. The teacher, Mrs. Meacham, wears cheerfully colored clothes. She chooses Ramona's composition about herself to read aloud, filling Ramona with pride. On top of that, Ramona meets Daisy, making a new friend.
Such school-age paradise can't last for long, however. Mrs. Meacham insists on teaching spelling, Ramona's worst subject. Ramona falls through the ceiling in Daisy's house. And, once again, Beezus, now a freshman in high school, gets to do things that Ramona jealously wishes she could do.
Things are even more complicated in the Quimby household with a new baby. And now Ramona must come to terms with being a middle child.
Cleary does her usual masterful job at combining humor and sympathy in her portrait of Ramona's fourth-grade year. Alan Tiegreen provides peppy line drawings, which combine well with Cleary's text.
One note: the Ramona books are also available on audio tape from Listening Library, with the reading done by actress Stockard Channing. The tapes are some of the best around for children.
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