Ramona Quimby, Age 8

Ramona Quimby, Age 8
by
Beverly Cleary

Ramona Quimby hoped her parents would forget to give her a little talking-to. She did not want anything to spoil this exciting day.
“Ha-ha, I get to ride the bus to school all by myself,” Ramona bragged to her big sister, Beatrice, at breakfast. Her stomach felt quivery with excitement at the day ahead, a day that would begin with a bus ride just the right length to make her feel a long way from home but not long enough – she hoped – to make her feel carsick. Ramona was going to ride the bus, because changes had been made in the schools in the Quimbys’ part of the city during the summer. Glenwood, the girls’ old school, had become an intermediate school, which meant Ramona had to go to Cedarhurst Primary School.

“Ha-ha yourself.” Beezus was too excited to be annoyed with her little sister. “Today I start high school.”
“Junior high school,” corrected Ramona, who was not going to let her sister get away with acting older than she really was. “Rosemont Junior High School is not the same as high school, and besides you have to walk.
Ramona had reached the age of demanding accuracy from everyone, even herself. All summer, whenever a grown-up asked what grade she was in, she felt as if she were fibbing when she answered, “third,” because she had not actually started the third grade…

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