Ramona the Pest Quotes

“She was not a slowpoke grownup. She was a girl who could not wait. Life was so interesting she had to find out what happened next.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Words were so puzzling. Present should mean a present just as attack should mean to stick tacks in people.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“I am not a pest," Ramona Quimby told her big sister Beezus.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Ramona could not understand why grown-ups always talked about how quickly children grew up. Ramona thought growing up was the slowest thing there was, slower even than waiting for Christmas to come.
She had been waiting years just to get to kindergarten, and the last half hour was the slowest part of all.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“She thought about Susan, who always acted big. In kindergarten there was no worse crime than acting big.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Only grown-ups would say boots were for keeping feet dry. Anyone in kindergarten knew that a girl should wear shiny red or white boots on the first rainy day, not to keep her feet dry, but to show off. That’s what boots were for – showing off, wading, splashing, stamping.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“I’m not a pest,” said Ramona indignantly, and to get even she stretched one of Susan’s curls and whispered, “Boing!”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Nobody understood. She wanted to behave herself. Except when banging her heels on the bedroom wall, she had always wanted to behave herself. Why couldn’t people understand how she felt?”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Miss Binney was not like most grown-ups. Miss Binney understood.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Ramona was filled with the glory of losing her first tooth and love for her teacher. Miss Binney had said she was brave! This day was the most wonderful day in the world! The sun shone, the sky was blue, and Miss Binney loved her.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Nothing infuriated Ramona more than having a grown-up say, as if she could not hear, that she was worn out.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Poor Miss Binney, dressed like Mother Goose, now had the responsibility of sixty-eight boys and girls.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Miss Binney stood in front of her class and began to read aloud from Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, a book that was a favorite of Ramona’s because, unlike so many books for her age, it was neither quiet and sleepy nor sweet and pretty.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Why don’t you turn on the dawnzer?” Ramona asked, proud of her new word.

Beezus looked up from her book. “What are you talking about?” she asked Ramona.

“What’s a dawnzer?”

Ramona was scornful. “Silly. Everybody knows what a dawnzer is.”

“I don’t,” said Mr. Quimby, who had been reading the evening paper. “What is a dawnzer?”

“A lamp,” said Ramona. “It gives a lee light. We sing about it every morning in kindergarten.”

A puzzled silence fell over the room until Beezus suddenly shouted with laughter.

“She-she means—” she gasped, “The Star-Spangled B-banner!” Her laughter dwindled to giggles. “She means the dawn’s early light.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Ramona, who did not mean to pester her mother, could not see why grown-ups had to be so slow.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Quimbys’ house where”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Ramona did not consider herself to be a pest. People who called her a pest did not understand that a littler person sometimes had to be a little bit noisier and a little bit stubborn in order to be noticed at all.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“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.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“That girl has been bad again,” Ramona heard the four-year-old next door say to her little sister.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“present,”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Ramona found it difficult to sit still, because she was always interested in what everyone else was doing.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“What’s the matter with my little Petunia today? Don’t you have a smile for me?”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Never mind. She would have fun all by herself.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“Susan could not have chosen a word that Ramona would resent more.”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest

“raincoat. Boots cost money, and Howie’s old boots are perfectly good. The soles are scarcely worn.” “The tops aren’t shiny,” Ramona told her mother. “And they’re brown boots. Brown boots are for boys.” “They keep your feet dry,” said Mrs. Quimby, “and that is what boots are for.” Ramona realized she looked sulky, but she could not help herself. Only grown-ups would say boots were for keeping feet dry. Anyone in kindergarten knew that a girl should wear shiny red or white boots on the first rainy day, not to keep her feet dry, but to show off. That’s what boots were for—showing off, wading, splashing, stamping. “Ramona,” said Mrs. Quimby sternly. “Get that look off your face this instant. Either you wear these boots or you stay”
― Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Pest