Newbery Award winner Beverly Cleary delivers a humorous portrayal of the ups and downs of sisterhood. Both the younger and older siblings of the family will enjoy this book.  Having a little sister like four-year-old Ramona isn’t always easy for Beezus Quimby. With a wild imagination, disregard for order, and an appetite for chaos, Ramona makes it hard for Beezus to be the responsible older sister she knows she ought to be…especially when Ramona threatens to ruin Beezus’s birthday party. Will Beezus find the patience to handle her little sister before Ramona turns her big day into a complete disaster?  "An important reminder of the good that can come when you throw yourself fully into any situation and draw outside the lines," says Brightly in their article "12 Girls from Fiction Who Are Their Own Heroes."   Nine-year-old Beezus Quimby has her hands full with her little sister, Ramona. Sure, other people have little sisters that bother them sometimes, but is there anyone in the world like Ramona? Whether she's taking one bite out of every apple in a box or secretly inviting 15 other 4-year-olds to the house for a party, Ramona is always making trouble--and getting all the attention. Every big sister can relate to the trials and tribulations Beezus must endure. Old enough to be expected to take responsibility for her little sister, yet young enough to be mortified by every embarrassing plight the precocious preschooler gets them into, Beezus is constantly struggling with her mixed-up feelings about the exasperating Ramona. There's no one in the world like Beverly Cleary, either. This terrifically popular author of over two dozen children's books has withstood the test of time for generations, as her many awards, including the Newbery Medal, attest. Two books in the Ramona series, Ramona and Her Father and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 , were also named Newbery Honor Books. Louis Darling's wonderful ink illustrations are the kind that will stay with a reader for a lifetime. (Ages 8 to 12) --Emilie Coulter “Ramona’s adventures ring as true as the recess bell.” - New York Times “Younger kids love Ramona’s can-do brand of chaos, while older kids can likely identify with Beezus’s big-sister frustrations.” - Brightly Four-year-old Ramona Quimby has an imagination that often leads to unintended trouble. She mortifies older sister Beezus at the library; disrupts an entire art class; and one rainy day, invites all her neighborhood friends over for a party'without even asking her mother. Sometimes Beezus can be patient with Ramona. After all, they are sisters. But when Ramona almost ruins Beezus's birthday, it's the last straw. Beezus knows she ought to love Ramona'but how can she get along with someone so exasperating? In this tale of two sisters, Beverly Cleary writes with sympathy for Beezus and affection for Ramona. Newly illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers, Beezus and Ramona proves that the Quimby girls don't have to be alike in order to be unforgettable. Beverly Cleary is one of America's most beloved authors. As a child, she struggled with reading and writing. But by third grade, after spending much time in her public library in Portland, Oregon, she found her skills had greatly improved. Before long, her school librarian was saying that she should write children's books when she grew up. Instead she became a librarian. When a young boy asked her, "Where are the books about kids like us?" she remembered her teacher's encouragement and was inspired to write the books she'd longed to read but couldn't find when she was younger. She based her funny stories on her own neighborhood experiences and the sort of children she knew. And so, the Klickitat Street gang was born! Mrs. Cleary's books have earned her many prestigious awards, including the American Library Association's Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, presented to her in recognition of her lasting contribution to children's literature. Dear Mr. Henshaw won the Newbery Medal, and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and Ramona and Her Father have been named Newbery Honor Books. Her characters, including Beezus and Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Ralph, the motorcycle-riding mouse, have delighted children for generations. Jaqueline Rogers has been a professional children's book illustrator for more than twenty years and has worked on nearly one hundred children's books. Beatrice Quimby's biggest problem was her little sister Ramona. Beatrice, or Beezus (as everyone called her, because that was what Ramona had called her when she first learned to talk), knew other nine-year-old girls who had little sisters who went to nursery school, but she did not know anyone with a little sister like Ramona. Beezus felt that the biggest trouble with fouryear-old Ramona was that she was just plain exasperating. If Ramona drank lemonade through a straw, she blew into the straw as hard as she could to see what would happen. If she played with her finger paints in the front yard, she