Ramona Quimby Age 8

Willa Jean is Howie’s four-year-old sister. Each day after school, Ramona stays at the Kemps’ as the adults expect her to entertain Willa Jean. Willa Jean is opinionated and sometimes exasperating and is reminiscent of a younger Ramona. Willa Jean admires Ramona, but often Mrs. Kemp blames Ramona for Willa Jean’s precocious antics. Like most four-year-olds, Willa Jean is very demanding and requires Ramona’s full attention: “Now that Willa Jean was going to nursery school, she was full of ideas. Dressing up was one of them” (35). Ramona would much prefer to spend her afternoon riding bikes with Howie and the other kids or reading her book.

Ramona’s afternoons with Willa Jean force her to practice being nice when it’s not easy and teaches Ramona patience and responsibility. Since Mrs. Quimby has made it clear that Ramona’s job is to be kind to Willa Jean, she tries her best to honor her promise, even if she is miserable most days. The narrative illustrates Ramona’s cleverness when she enforces “Sustained Silent Reading” to keep Willa Jean out of her hair. In the end, Ramona realizes that it may never get easier giving up her afternoons to an exhausting toddler, but there’s value in trying. 

Danny is Ramona’s classmate. On the first day of school, he kicks the back of her bus seat and steals her new pink eraser. Ramona holds her temper against his bullying. Her self-control against Danny’s teasing displays Ramona’s maturity, even if internally she longs to punish him. When he calls her “Bigfoot,” the narrative shows Ramona’s confidence, as she bravely stands up to him. Danny returns her eraser and gradually develops into Ramona’s friend.

After the egg-cracking incident, Danny walks her back to class and comforts her by calling their teacher “old Whaley” and nicknaming Ramona “Egghead,” a term for someone smart. Danny is clever and witty. The more Ramona gets to know him, the more she is drawn to his personality, and he becomes her first crush: “She began to like him, really like him” (61). When Ramona is out sick and her classmates send her letters, all the notes feel formulaic except Danny’s. When she delivers her book reports, he beams at her, genuinely impressed by her sense of humor and bravery.

Though Danny begins as a potential antagonist and threatens to ruin Ramona’s first day of school, he evolves to become Ramona’s friend and serves as a symbol of the change in her social relationships as she comes of age.

Beatrice, nicknamed Beezus by Ramona, is the eldest Quimby child. When the novel opens, she is entering eighth grade at Rosemont Junior High. Though Ramona misses Beezus when she feels vulnerable, she is mostly happy to no longer share the limelight at school with her perfect older sister.

Though Beezus is an agreeable child, she begins to exhibit the traits of an adolescent as she rebels against eating her dinner and bursts into tears when her mother refuses to let her attend a sleepover. Beezus exemplifies an adolescent character on the cusp of becoming a teenager. She longs to exert her independence but still wrestles with internal doubt, such as when worrying about the first school dance. Though Beezus experiences tension with her mother, she finds herself less at odds with Ramona than when she was younger, such as when the sisters come together to cook a family meal, when Beezus gives Ramona advice about her book report, and when Ramona comes to Beezus’s defense over the sleepover.

In the end, Beezus is moved by the older man’s generosity at Whopperburger. She declares: “We are nicer than some families I know” (177) and concedes that she doesn’t care for sleepovers anyway. Beezus serves as a good example to her younger sister as they both experience familial stress and social change.