


However, after learning about memories from the childhoods of Aunt Beatrice and her mother, both of whom used to fight much like Beezus and her sister, Beatrice accepts that she can love (but may not always like) Ramona. Beezus, however, is haunted frequently by the guilt of her animosity towards Ramona and the uneasy sisterhood that they share as opposed to that displayed by her mother and Aunt Beatrice, and is finally prompted to reveal this during her tenth birthday celebration after Ramona has ruined a pair of birthday cakes intended for the party. Beezus is also commonly exasperated by actions on her disrespectful sister's part such as writing in a library book, inviting her classmates to a house party without the permission of her parents, and wreaking havoc during Beezus's painting class. Plot īeatrice "Beezus" Quimby, a close friend of Henry Huggins, is perpetually infuriated by the imaginative antics of her younger sister Ramona, who frequently insists upon exhibiting imaginative habits and eccentricities such as wearing her beloved homemade paper rabbit ears while pretending to be the Easter Bunny, dragging a string along behind her pretending to lead an imaginary lizard named Ralph, and being read an irritating children's book about an anthropomorphic, disgruntled steam shovel called Scoopy. Eventually becoming the first book of the Ramona series, it was originally illustrated by Louis Darling later editions were illustrated by Alan Tiegreen and then by Tracy Dockray. Beezus and Ramona is realistic fiction, written from nine-year-old Beezus's point of view, as she struggles to get along with her four-year-old sister. It is the first of Cleary's books to focus on Ramona Quimby and her sister Beatrice, known as Beezus. Beezus and Ramona is a 1955 children's novel written by Beverly Cleary.
