WMG / Ramona Quimby

Howie's older sister died between Ramona the Pest and Ramona the Brave.

• In Ramona the Pest Howie's mother mentions that his older sister was sick and she was taking her temperature when Willa Jean made a mess. However, it's obvious in the later books that Howie doesn't have an older sister. Maybe she died of her illness and Ramona's sympathy for Howie led to their new friendship. As for why she's not mentioned again, maybe it's too painful to talk or think about.
  • Howie's father is never mentioned. It's possible that the older sister was his stepsister, and Howie's mother was his father's second marriage. His parents divorced, and his stepsister is technically no longer his stepsister, or any kind of sister. The sister is mentioned in one of the early books, written back when people were less likely to make distinctions like "step" and "half" in reference to siblings, especially around small children, who were presumed not to understand.
    • This would also explain why Mrs. Kemp refers to her as "Howie's sister" rather than "my daughter."
    • Howie's father is mentioned. He is Uncle Hobart's best man in Ramona Forever, and if I'm not mistaken, is also mentioned as arriving home for dinner in Ramona and Her Mother.
    • Yes, this is true. The older sister still might be his daughter from a first marriage, though, who only sometimes visits.

Howie's father was previously married, and Howie's older sister is his daughter from his first marriage, who lives with her mother but who sometimes visits her father and half-siblings.

• See above.

Grandpa Day is actually Dorothy and Bea's stepfather.

• Their last name was originally Haswell (evidenced by the autograph album incident mentioned in "Beezus and Ramona"). Sometime afterward their father died and their mother remarried a man with a last name of Day. He raised the girls as his own and they took his name.

Uncle Jack, who's mentioned in Henry and Beezus, is Aunt Bea's ex-fiancé.

• In Henry and Beezus, Beezus tells Henry that Ramona tried to cut off all her hair so she could be bald like their Uncle Jack. But Ramona Forever states that Ramona and Beezus have no uncles. Nor is it likely that he died, because the same book states that Picky-picky's death is Ramona's first experience with the death of someone she knows. A possible explanation? Jack was engaged to Aunt Bea for a while, and he became the girls' Honorary Uncle, but eventually they broke up.

Ramona has ADHD.

• This would explain her impulsive and hyperactive tendencies, and her recurring fear that adults don't like her or that her parents love her less than they love Beezus might be rejection sensitive dysphoria.