Line #2 YMMV/RamonaQuimby


1	* AccidentalAesop: It's okay for older kids to set boundaries with younger kids even if the younger kid is only pushing said boundaries because they like the older kid so much. In an early book, Mrs. Quimby tells off Ramona for interrupting Henry and Beezus's checkers game, sending her to her room to think about manners. Later, the Quimbys agree that Ramona doesn't have to hang out at Howie's house because it's not fair that his grandmother scapegoats Ramona for the mischief that Howie's little sister Willa Jean causes. They instead have the girls come home. When Willa Jean calls and begs Ramona to return for after-school playdates, Ramona is portrayed as in the right for politely turning her down. The latter case could also be seen as an Aesop about how to treat your friends since part of the reason Ramona doesn't like hanging out with Willa Jean is because Willa Jean is often not nice to her when they do play.
2	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
3	** Ramona starts crying with Beezus when the latter finds out that Ramona tossed her doll into the oven while Beezus's birthday cake is baking; the cake is ruined as a result because the doll burns in the batter. Was it TearsOfRemorse over MyGodWhatHaveIDone because she went too far while pretending to be Gretel, or was it a case of OhCrap? Ramona had already ruined one of Beezus's cakes by tossing the eggs in the batter, so she was in the doghouse. Plus, as Mrs. Quimby puts it when [[GoToYourRoom sending her to her room]] as punishment, Ramona is ''not'' allowed to touch the oven since she's only a toddler.
4	** When Henry agrees to play Joseph in the Christmas pageant despite being busy doing other things, is he just being agreeable (which would be in character), or is it because Beezus is playing Mary? It could also be CharacterDevelopment because in his debut ''Henry Huggins'', he did all he could to get out of playing the lead in the Christmas play but seems to have realized it's not a big deal now that everyone is more grown-up. [[note]]Although that's debatable, since his only reason for not wanting to be in the play was because he disliked AllJustADream stories and that he had only been cast as the lead because he was short.[[/note]]
5	** Hobart teasing Ramona about her name with the song "Ramona" and jokingly calling her Howie's girlfriend. Howie even tells him to knock it off, with annoyance. Was Hobart being InnocentlyInsensitive and thinking he was funny, or did he want to get a rise out of his nephew? Ramona even notes that he stops doing it when he proposes to Aunt Bea, much to her relief.
6	** The cab driver who looks "doubtful" when picking up the stomach-flu-afflicted Ramona in "Age 8": Was he [[NeatFreak not wanting her to throw up again in his car]] or was he afraid of catching her germs?
7	** In "Ramona the Pest", Davy's house that he draws is described as looking "like a clubhouse built by some boys who had a few old boards and not enough nails. It leaned to one side in a tired sort of way." Does this imply that Davy lives in rough conditions or that he is simply bad at drawing?
8	* AngstWhatAngst: Ramona doesn't seem to mourn [[spoiler: Picky-picky's death]] much beyond [[spoiler: his funeral.]] Probably justified since [[spoiler: the cat]] never cared much for rowdy little Ramona, so she was never as attached to him as Beezus was, and the news of Mrs. Quimby's pregnancy provides an immediate distraction too. At least she does feel sad at the thought of [[spoiler: leaving his grave behind]] when it seems that her family is going to move.
9	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments:
10	** "Ramona's World":
11	*** Roberta gets her head stuck in the kitten penthouse that Ramona has on loan while catsitting. It's scary, but Ramona keeps a clear head and quickly thinks of a solution, realizing that since Roberta is crying and has her mouth open, her head can't get out of the hole, so she needs to be pacified. So she sings Roberta's favorite rhyme to calm her down, "The Three Little Kittens," and pulls her baby sister out of the cat hole gently. A subtle but telling display of maturity, ingenuity, and love, showing how far Ramona has come from the BrattyHalfPint she used to be, so long ago.
12	*** The last chapter finally has Susan facing comeuppance for her snobby and bratty attitude. Ramona had specifically said she didn't want to invite Susan to her party because the girl would ruin it with her "[[ThePerfectionist Miss Perfect]]" attitude. She's proven right when Mrs. Quimby invites Susan against her wishes; Susan takes out an apple after Ramona blows out the candles and says her mother wouldn't let her have any because the cake has germs from Ramona. While Ramona understandably fumes and the kids are briefly grossed out, Daisy takes a big bite out of her slice of cake and says, with a decisive look in her eyes, who cares if the cake has a few germs, it's not like they ate food off the floor or something. This helps the kids regain their spirit, and they call out Susan for being rude. Even though they then comfort Susan for subsequently crying about how no one likes her and Ramona forgives Susan for being a {{Jerkass}} on realizing how much of it is her mother's influence, it's the only time that she actually faces consequences.
13	* BaseBreakingCharacter: Daisy. Some readers consider her a ReplacementScrappy for Howie and a forgettable GenericGirl who mostly exists to be the perfect friend for Ramona and has few if any flaws (aside from pushing Ramona into the attic) while others like her for being a NiceGirl who finally gives Ramona a prominent female friend her age to bounce off of, as well as the fact she provides a CatharsisFactor and SugarWiki/AwesomeMoment calling out Susan for her rude behavior at Ramona's birthday party, especially since that is the only time Susan [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty faces any consequences]].
14	* BrokenBase:
15	** The earlier books in the series vs. the later books. Are they all equally appealing in different ways? Are the later books such as ''Ramona Quimby, Age 8'' and ''Ramona Forever'' especially good because Ramona is older, less of a BrattyHalfPint, and more relatable to the target audience of readers? Or do the later books lack the charm of the earlier books because the more mature Ramona is less wild and less prone to making funny mistakes?
16	** ''Ramona's World'': Is it a good final book, or does it lack the charm and spirit of the previous books (particularly with Ramona's GirlinessUpgrade and with Daisy replacing Howie as her best friend) and make a less effective finale than ''Ramona Forever''? (See ContestedSequel below.)
17	* CatharsisFactor: Daisy ends up being the one telling off Susan in "Ramona's World" for her behavior, and it's the first time the lecture actually sticks. While she doesn't know why Ramona dislikes the other girl, since she moved that year and didn't know about the owl debacle, she soon understands why when Susan pulls out an apple after Ramona blows out her birthday candles and says that the cake now has germs on it, so her mother told her not to eat any. Daisy gives a DeathGlare to Susan and eats the cake, saying that it's perfectly fine. The other kids are invited to dig in as well. and they join in when calling out Susan for being rude. Yes, this drives Susan to tears, and she seems oblivious that it was her own rudeness even if she was parroting her mother, but it was well-deserved.
18	* ContestedSequel: "Ramona's World" is either a good finale to the books or an unnecessary continuation after the SeriesFauxnale "Ramona Forever" that doesn’t have as much charm as the earlier books.
19	* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Davy’s mentioned to have trouble completing his schoolwork accurately. At one point, he’s described as having difficulty distinguishing between reading “saw” and “was”, and “dog” and “god”, which could be a symptom of dyslexia.
20	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Ramona herself, whose series is a spin-off of the Henry Huggins series. Additionally, the first book ("Beezus and Ramona") was written from Beezus's perspective; Ramona simply took over the series thereafter.
21	* FridgeBrilliance: Can be found [[Fridge/RamonaQuimby here]].
22	* HardTruthAesop: The subplot of Mr. Quimby's search for a job he likes, which spans from ''Ramona and Her Father'' through ''Ramona Forever'', ends with the message of "We can't always do what we want in life, so we do the best we can." Mr. Quimby gets his teaching credentials to become a children's art teacher, but he only gets one job offer, from a one-room schoolhouse in a rural town far away, so he resigns himself to working as a supermarket manager instead, finding an outlet for his artistic skills by painting advertising pictures on the market windows.
23	* HarsherInHindsight: Beezus can't help but be amused when Ramona thinks their dad mowing the lawn is his job when filling out a library card; she quickly tells the librarian where their dad works since Ramona is too little to know better. A few books later, Mr. Quimby loses his job in a company merger and spends days around the house moping or at the unemployment office getting paychecks.
24	** Both Beezus and Ramona agree on one thing; it's wonderful that Aunt Bea lives nearby because her visits always brighten their days. In "Ramona Forever", they find out that Aunt Bea is marrying Howie's Uncle Hobart and moving to Alaska with him. Neither of them is thrilled about this, though Beezus decides to deal with it by throwing herself into the wedding preparation. As Ramona puts it in the Canadian TV show, she doesn't want her aunt to leave because they won't even see her. Aunt Bea has to reassure her that she will still visit and come for the holidays and that she will miss both of her nieces.
25	** Ramona resents hanging out with Willa Jean because Howie's grandmother will always blame Ramona for anything that the little girl does. It gets to the point where the Quimbys agree that if Beezus comes straight home from school, then Ramona can skip the mandatory babysitting and have a peaceful afternoon for once. Willa Jean then calls Ramona asking her to come over, saying she misses her because her uncle Hobart has a girlfriend now and she has no playmates since Howie thinks she's too little. Ramona feels guilty but nevertheless turns her down.
26	* NeverLiveItDown: While it doesn't give her a bad reputation, there are some things that Ramona is most known for among the readers and that have a tendency to make their way into adaptations and be mentioned in reviews even though they only happened once. They include squeezing out a tube of toothpaste, getting egg in her hair due to accidentally getting a raw egg instead of a boiled one, throwing up, and wearing pyjamas under her clothes.
27	* ParanoiaFuel: While the stomach flu arc in "Age 8" was mostly innocuous, it could make those who are scared of illness a bit paranoid as the initial symptoms were minor ones like "her spoon felt heavy" that could be chalked up to a funny mood.
28	* PeripheryDemographic: Adults find the books charming and nostalgic.
29	* RealismInducedHorror: The series overall is light and sweet, but there are a few moments that are scarier when you're an adult.
30	** The narration mentions there was one time Ramona tried walking to find the end of the rainbow without telling her parents or Beezus. After making it as far as the supermarket, the police bring her home. While Mr. Quimby only remarks that Ramona has too much imagination sometimes, it's hinted it was LiesToChildren so that Beezus (who is only 9 years old at the time) wouldn't freak out.
31	** There's a bit where Ramona vanishes while Beezus is getting a snack and watching her. Beezus briefly panics that Ramona might have gone outside and started wandering again to explore the world since she had explained about Christopher Columbus to her. Then she realizes she hasn't checked the basement and goes down.
32	** Ramona shoves her doll Bendix in the oven while Mrs. Quimby is baking Beezus's birthday cake, causing it and the cake to start burning rubber while pretending to be Gretel. Beezus is more angry and saddened that her cake is ruined, but Mrs. Quimby in hindsight realizes that Ramona could have easily started a house fire. She chides Ramona and says she knows better than to play with the oven because it's dangerous.
33	** Mr. Quimby losing his job, and the subsequent toll it takes on the family. He takes up smoking to deal with the stress while going to and from the unemployment office or heading to shifts as a cashier. Mrs. Quimby starts going to work part-time in a doctor's office, and they have to buy discount cat food that Picky-Picky hates. When the girls convince Mr. Quimby to [[GoingColdTurkey go cold turkey]] because they're worried he'll develop lung cancer, he becomes irritable and grumpier.
34	** [[spoiler:Picky-Picky's death. Beezus goes down to the basement to check on him because Ramona forgot to let him out, and Ramona realizes she didn't hear him meowing. Beezus screams, and she realizes that Picky-Picky must have died in his sleep. They conspire to bury him before their parents come home since their dad asked them not to worry their mother. Mr. Quimby looks guilty when he finds out later, saying he would have taken care of the funeral if he had known]].
35	** The scene where Ramona nearly falls through Daisy's attic. She's trapped for a bit until Daisy's brother can rescue her, and feels guilty that the floor and ceiling are damaged. Daisy's mother tells her that doesn't matter; what's important is that Ramona was not seriously hurt.
36	* ReplacementScrappy: How some fans felt towards Daisy replacing Howie as Ramona’s best friend in "Ramona's World".
37	* {{Squick}}: Whenever Ramona feels nauseous (e.g. when she gets carsick in ''Ramona and Her Mother'', or when she comes down with the stomach flu in ''Ramona Quimby, Age 8''), it's described in great detail, including her expression, her internal monologue, etc.
38	* SignatureScene: Each book has at least one or two.
39	** ''Beezus and Ramona'': Ramona hopping around in her paper bunny ears; Ramona crashing her tricycle into Beezus and Henry's game of checkers; Ramona plunging her doll into Beezus's birthday cake in the oven while playing ''Literature/HanselAndGretel''.
40	** ''Ramona the Pest'': Ramona splashing in the rain in her new red boots and getting stuck in the mud; Ramona pulling Susan's curls.
41	** ''Ramona the Brave'': Ramona destroying Susan's paper owl; Ramona being chased by a German Shepherd and throwing her shoe at him.
42	** ''Ramona and Her Father'': Ramona putting a crown of burrs on her head and Mr. Quimby having to cut them out of her hair; Mr. Quimby and Ramona drawing "the world's longest picture"; Ramona playing a sheep in the church Christmas pageant.
43	** ''Ramona and Her Mother'': Ramona squeezing out a whole tube of toothpaste into the sink; Ramona wearing her pajamas to school under her clothes; Mrs. Quimby helping Ramona pack to run away, but making the suitcase too heavy for her.
44	** ''Ramona Quimby, Age 8'': Ramona breaking a raw egg on her head; Ramona throwing up in class.
45	** ''Ramona Forever'': [[spoiler: Picky-picky's death]]; Aunt Beatrice's wedding; Roberta's birth.
46	** ''Ramona's World'': Ramona falling through the floor of Daisy's attic; Ramona making a grossed-out face in her school picture when the photographer says "Say peas!"; Daisy and the other girls telling off Susan at Ramona's birthday party.
47	* StuckInTheirShadow: Beezus, who gets a minimum number of plots compared to Ramona.
48	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Readers who grew up with Louis Darling and Alan Tiegreen's illustrations reacted this way to the reprints with new illustrations. The new illustrations attempt to modernize certain things, such as depicting the characters in helmets when they ride bikes, but [[UnreliableIllustrator the illustrations sometimes don't match up with the text]].
49	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Ramona's father once gets accepted for a job teaching in a far-away part of the state, and the possibility of moving and what it would mean for Ramona (leaving behind her friends, her school, and even Picky-Picky's grave) is brought up. However, later on in the same book, Mr. Quimby reveals that he instead took a promotion to manager at the store where he's working.
50	* ToyShip: While people don't tend to write fanfiction about the series, Ramona is sometimes speculated to have a crush on both Yard Ape and Howie. Beezus and Henry in the early books, with Daisy's brother Jeremy implied to have a crush on Beezus in the final book.
51	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Thanks to the first several books being written in the 50s, 60s and 70s, this happens:
52	** There's a moment where the librarian writes down on a library card what is Mr. Quimby's job. These days, people need to fill out a form and adults need to sign them for their children. Job-status usually isn't mentioned on those.
53	** Aunt Beatrice and Mrs. Quimby laugh about how they had a feud that was started because Beatrice wrote on every page of Dorothy's autograph album. Readers nowadays may need to know an autograph album is exactly what it sounds like: a notebook that collects quotes and sayings from people. Although this practice is not too different from a typical school yearbook, so it could translate well enough.
54	** Mrs. Quimby is a homemaker for a long time, until she takes a part-time job to pay for an extension to the house, and then a full-time job when her husband gets laid off. There's also a bit where Mr. Quimby tells off Ramona for wanting a sheep costume for a Christmas pageant without asking if her mother has the time; Ramona then wishes her dad could sew. In the 21st century, she'd have to balance having a job with housework. Presumably, Ramona would be taught to sew if she wants her sheep costume, or Mr. Quimby could do it since all he's doing is smoking and collecting unemployment.
55	** In the fifth book, Beezus wants a haircut like "that girl who figure-skates on TV." This is almost certainly a reference to 1976 Winter Olympics gold medalist Dorothy Hamill, whose hair, cut so that it would float gracefully as she skated, was iconic enough in that time period that she was a spokesperson for Clairol hair products.
56	* ValuesDissonance: With the book series being over 60 years old, this trope was bound to come up eventually.
57	** In "Beezus and Ramona", which was published in 1955, an exasperated Beezus thinks about how fed up she is with reading Ramona's favorite book (a story about a talking steam shovel) over and over again, because she doesn't like how whiny the steam shovel is in the story or having to make the silly growling sound effects while reading it. She comments to herself that girls aren't supposed to like machinery anyway. This viewpoint probably wouldn't go over very well with modern readers, since it's become much more accepted for girls to like traditionally-boyish things in the 21st century, and vice versa.
58	** In the same book, pre-school age Ramona is left to play in a sandbox in a public park with no supervision. Modern parents would be too terrified of her being scooped up by a pedo to do such a thing. Later in the series, when Ramona is in kindergarten, hides all day because she doesn't want a substitute teacher (with no concern over where she is that we see), walks to and from school, crossing a busy street, is left home alone, and is punished by having to sit outside the classroom — when the classroom opens not onto a hallway, but a playground!
59	** In the earlier books, Ramona and Beezus always wear dresses to school, because most schools forbade girls to wear pants at the time they were written. Thanks to ComicBookTime, they eventually do start wearing pants to school around the middle of the series.
60	** Neither Ramona nor Howie rides his bike with a helmet. Howie is also allowed to ride a unicycle without a helmet or knee pads, which is a problem when he falls and scrapes his legs.
61	** Although the Quimby parents don't use corporal punishment, some of Mr. Quimby's grandmother's sayings make reference to it ("First time [doing something annoying] is funny, second time is silly, third time is a spanking"), and in ''Beezus and Ramona'', Aunt Beatrice mentions that as a child she got spanked for ruining her sister's new autograph album. With studies showing the [[https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2017/12/the-fourth-r/547583/ negative]] [[https://www.handinhandparenting.org/2013/08/whats-the-problem-with-spanking/ effects]] of spanking and similar punishments on children, that would be substantially more controversial these days.
62	** Shortly after Ramona starts kindergarten, Mrs. Quimby and Mrs. Kemp decide that Ramona and Howie are ready to start walking to school by themselves, despite presumably only being around 5 years old. In this day and age, this would never be considered acceptable (in the US at least) given how prevalent the fear of child predators is among parents.
63	** There is one scene that makes the Kemps UnintentionallyUnsympathetic when the Quimbys are late picking up Ramona from their house. Ramona is starving and worried if her parents got into an accident, not helped by the fact that the Kemps have already started dinner with pork chops. They offer her crackers, but she refuses out of pride. To make it go FromBadToWorse, the Quimby Crock-Pot wasn't on, so the girls have to wait for their parents to make pancakes for dinner. In this day and age, it would have been more polite and courteous for the Kemps to invite Ramona to eat with them and share the food so she's not stressed and hungry. They would also likely have an emergency contact number in the case that something did happen to the Quimbys and they couldn't pick her up.
64	** The scene of a nurse forbidding Ramona from seeing her baby sister and mother in the hospital because "children under 12 might have contagious diseases" even though Beezus is only a few years older. This causes Ramona to start itching everywhere from the stress and fear that she is a germy girl until a doctor gives a prescription to her father that she needs hugs and kisses. In the 2010s, ''no one'' would be allowed to be in the same room as the mother and baby unless they have a private room, because the newborn wards have glass displays for visitors to see them. Both Beezus and Mr. Quimby would be just as "contagious" for the newborn.
65	** "Ramona the Brave" has a big moment. Ramona "scrunches" (read: destroys) Susan's paper bag owl, and her own, because Susan copied Ramona's design. Ramona did not feel she could tell Mrs. Griggs about this because Mrs. Griggs always says, "Nobody likes a tattletale." So what ends up happening is, Mrs. Griggs makes Ramona apologize to Susan in front of the class. This is ValuesDissonance on two counts. One, a twenty-first century audience might well cringe at this discipline, because its focus is on humiliating the child in trouble, rather than working out the problem. Also, Mrs. Griggs' [[SternTeacher constant refrain about tattletales]] seems to communicate, "Don't come to me with your problems." Mrs. Griggs also fails to make a distinction between tattling, and telling an adult when something is truly wrong. Her message, again, is socially isolating and humiliating: "If you do this, no one will ever like you."
66	*** Possibly a case of DeliberateValuesDissonance - Cleary understood how hurtful words from grown-ups could leave a traumatic impression on a child, even if unintentional, when talking about how Ramona overhearing the word "nuisance" from her teacher was based on Cleary being called a "nuisance" by one of her own teachers. So it's likely she understood how "nobody likes a tattletale" could be problematic by discouraging children from getting help with real issues. It was likely her intention to illustrate the harm of this attitude to young readers and their parents, and to try to send the message to kids to not be afraid to speak up to trusted adults, in keeping with the overall theme of the book.
67	** ''Ramona and Her Father'' has some moments where Mr. Quimby smokes cigarettes indoors and even in the presence of his family, including near Ramona (who is a ''second grader'' in this book). Although the book ''does'' have [[FairForItsDay a good message for the late 70's]] [[SmokingIsNotCool that smoking is bad for one's health]] (plus, Ramona bends over backwards convincing him to quit), this looks incredibly dangerous in modern times when the risks of secondhand smoke (especially towards young children) and even causing house fires are way better known.
68	** Near the end of ''Ramona Quimby, Age 8'', when the Quimby family eats out for dinner, Ramona dances whilst fiddling with the buttons on a cigarette vending machine inside the restaurant. For similar reasons to the above, a restaurant with a family-oriented menu would no longer be allowed to have such a thing on the premises, not to mention cigarette vending machines are now restricted to licensed places only accessible to adult patrons (or even outright banned) in some countries.
69	* {{Wangst}}: The fact that in every book from ''Ramona the Pest'' through ''Ramona's World'', Ramona goes through a phase of thinking some adult or other doesn't like her, especially her teachers. It can get a little bit old, especially since it's rarely true in the end. Still, the fact that Ramona is a sensitive, eager-to-please child arguably does make it ring true to life, and in some cases (e.g. Howie's grandmother Mrs. Kemp) it sadly is true.
70	* TheWoobie: To some extent, Davy in the first few books. He's slow to learn, and his parents later divorce.
71	** In "Ramona the Pest", the student's have to draw a picture of their house. "Davy's house looked like a clubhouse built by some boys who had a few old boards and not enough nails. It leaned to one side in a tired sort of way." Granted, this could also just be meant to suggest that Davy is bad at drawing.
72	** Ramona herself definitely counts as well during her {{Age Appropriate Angst}} moments.

Context YMMV / RamonaQuimby