Ramona the Pest

As the title of the book implies, characters often regard Ramona as a “pest” throughout the book. She has a lot of energy and a hyperactive imagination. She also has a penchant for mischief-making. Time and time again, Ramona seems to get into mischief (pulling Susan’s hair, trip-trapping with her new shoes, making a worm into an engagement ring, etc.) that makes that label seem apt. However, as Ramona explains in Chapter 7, she does not mean to be a pest, but she only wishes to be noticed. 

As children develop in early childhood, they have a kind of logic all their own and often they misunderstand the world around them. Given the onslaught of new information and new experiences, it can be hard for children to make sense of the world. In Ramona the Pest, the reader is privy to the mind of a child and is made to understand the peculiarities of the way children reason and form ideas. For example, in Chapter 1, the children cannot get past the fact that the story Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel does not explain how or when Mike Mulligan goes to the bathroom:

[The children] were surprised that Miss Binney did not understand, because she had showed them the bathroom the very first thing. Ramona could see there were some things she was not going to learn in school, and along with the rest of the class she stared reproachfully at Miss Binney (20).

In Chapter 5, Ramona understands what grown-ups do not about her rainboots: “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” (107). In Chapter 8, Ramona’s family cannot help but laugh that Ramona mistook the phrase “dawn’s early light” in the “Star-Spangled Banner” for what she called “dawnzer,” and understood to be a kind of lamp. Kid logic appears through the book, further intimating the reader to the real experiences of children. 

Ramona’s doll, Chevrolet, perfectly represents her uniqueness. The doll is tattered and has green hair that Ramona washes herself, but the doll’s disheveled appearance makes no difference to Ramona. Ramona chose the name likely because she liked the sound of it, hinting at her artistic attributes. Conversely, Howie brings the blue bunny and is ashamed of the tattered toy. Howie is more affected by the thoughts of his peers than unique, confident Ramona.