She was not a slowpoke growing up. She was a girl who could not wait. Life was so interesting she had to find out what happened next – Ramona the Pest
Words were so puzzling. Present should mean a present just as attack should mean to stick tacks in people – Ramona the Pest
She means well, but she always manages to do the wrong thing. She has a real talent for it. – Fifteen
I guess that’s what growing up is. Saying goodbye to a lot of things. Sometimes it is easy and sometimes it isn’t. But it is all right. – The Luckiest Girl
Ramona could not understand why grown-ups always talked about how quickly children grew up. Ramona thought growing up was the slowest thing there was, slower even than waiting for Christmas to come. She had been waiting years just to get to kindergarten, and the last half hour was the slowest part of all. – Ramona the Pest
‘If she can’t spell, why is she a librarian? Librarians should know how to spell’ – Ramona’s World
All her life she had wanted to squeeze the toothpaste. Really squeeze it, not just one little squirt… The paste coiled and swirled and mounded in the washbasin. Ramona decorated the mound with toothpaste roses as if it was a toothpaste birthday cake – Ramona and her Mother
They wiped his paws on a good bath towel whenever he came in with wet feet, because they had not been married long enough to have an old bath towel. – Socks
Today I discovered two kinds of people who go to high school: those who wear new clothes to show off on the first day, and those who wear their oldest clothes to show they think school is unimportant. – Strider
Problem solving, and I don’t mean algebra, seems to be my life’s work. Maybe it’s everyone’s life’s work. – Strider
Grown ups often forget that no child likes to be ordered to be nice to another child. – Ramona Quimby, Age 8
All my life, Mother had told me to use my imagination, but I had never expected to be asked, or even allowed, to use it in school. – A Girl from Yamhill
Do you have a favourite Beverly Cleary quote? Tell us on Twitter @GdnChildrensBks or by email to childrens.books@theguardian.com and we’ll add them to this list.
