Everything depends on Ramona. Ramona's job is to be nice to fussy Mrs. Kemp, who watches her while her mother works. If Mrs. Quimby didn't work, Mr. Quimby couldn't return to college. On top of all that, third grade isn't turning out as Ramona expected, even though she enjoys her class's new reading program, D.E.A.R. Danny the Yard Ape teases her, and, on one horrible day, she throws up--at school. Being eight isn't easy, but it's never dull. --back cover
In this touching and funny story, the ebullient Ramona, feeling brave and grown-up, enters first grade. Quickly she finds that her new teacher, Mrs. Griggs, appears perplexed by pupils who like to be different. Since Ramona cannot help being different, clearly the two are incompatible. Nevertheless, Ramona can be counted on to keep things lively. Enraged when Susan copies her wise old owl prepared for Parents' Night and receives praise for it, Ramona rebels. Overcome by guilt and no longer brave, she tries mightily thereafter to please her teacher, but still Mrs. Griggs infuriatingly reports home that Ramona lacks self-control. Only because she is a girl with spunk, to use her father's word, does Ramona's courage return, earning her at last an uneasy truce with the teacher. Beverly Cleary draws here a portrait of a little girl discovering with astonishment that the way others see her is not always the way she sees herself. In the contrast lie moments of emerging self-knowledge for Ramona and of delicious hilarity for the reader.
A companion to the best-selling Anna Banana: 101 Jump-Rope Rhymes, here is a collection of nearly forty fingerplays and action rhymes that have been chanted, sung, and enjoyed for generations. Children and their parents can join the eentsy, weentsy spider in its climb up the waterspout, pretend to pound in a nail while singing "The Hammer Song," and tip their bodies over for "I'm a Little Teapot." Included are such favorites as "The Wheels on the Bus," "This Old Man," "This Is the Church," and "Where Is Thumbkin?" as well as such lesser-known rhymes as "My Hat" and "Birthday Cake." So say them, sing them, act them out -- action rhymes are fun for everyone!
Quick! What color was Miss Mary Mack wearing when she went upstairs to make her bed? And what did Miss Lucy name her baby boy? Discover the answers to these questions inside, along with more than one hundred fabulous handclaps and street rhymes. From "I'm a Pretty Little Dutch Girl" to "A, My Name Is Alice," every one of them is as much fun to read as it is to sing, chant, or recite.
