Beezus and Ramona

Beezus sometimes feels guilty that she doesn’t love her little sister as much as she thinks she should. But Ramona is really annoying most of the time and only behaves if Beezus (Ramona’s version of Beatrice) gives up her own time to entertain her.

Mostly, Ramona is noisy, destructive and deliberately awkward so it’s not really a surprise when she draws on every single page of a library book, hijacks Beezus’ art class, spoils Beezus’ birthday cake (three times!) and invites most of her nursery class to her house for a party she hasn’t told her family about.

Anyone with younger brothers or sisters will sympathise with Beezus as time after time her 4 year old sister messes up her life. But annoyance and frustration are all part of the joy of having siblings and, quite often, things that seem so insufferable at the time become things that you can laugh about when you get older.

Divided into six chapters, each of which is a complete story, life in the USA with Beezus and Ramona is both funny and excruciating. Newly independent readers will enjoy laughing along and trying to guess what dreadful things Ramona might do next.