Ramona Quimby, Age 8 is a children's novel written by Beverly Cleary and was published in 1981. It is the sixth book of the popular Ramona series. This book is about the life and experiences of Ramona Quimby, who is now in third grade.
The story begins with Ramona Quimby getting ready for her first day of third grade. She is excited because is going to a new school, Cedarhurst Primary School, as her old one, Glenwood, had been changed into an Intermediate School. The thing that most excites her about the change in schools is that now she could travel all by herself on a school bus, as her sister Beezus now goes to another school for junior high. This makes Ramona glad, as her parents trust her enough to let her take care of herself.
The morning is busy and excited, with herself and her sister getting excitedly getting ready for their first day of school. Her father, Mr. Quimby is also getting ready for his first day of college. Mr. Quimby had been working as a cashier in a supermarket, but having been frustrated with the stress of the job, he had decided to go back to college to get his teaching certificate to teach art. Her mother Mrs. Quimby too is dressed and ready for work, which was as a receptionist at a Doctor's office. Before leaving for work, Mr. Quimby gives his daughters a pink eraser each, and Ramona who like her father, loves art, treasures it.
Reaching the bus stop, Ramona meets her friend Howie Kemp, who goes to the same school as her, though in a different class, and they board the bus together. In the bus, Ramona discovers that her pink eraser is missing and finds that a boy named Danny, who Ramona names 'Yard Apes', had taken it to tease her. She manages to get it back though, after outsmarting him. With this, Ramona is happy again, only wishing she could find a way to make the time she spent every day with Willy Jean more bearable. Because her parents were working, they had arranged with Mrs. Kemp; Howie's grandmother; to babysit Ramona every day after school. But the problem was that Mrs. Kemp blamed Ramona for anything that Willy Jean; Howie's four-year-old sister; did wrong because she was older and should have known better.
A few days after school starts, Mrs. Whaley announces that they were to have a 'Sustained Silent Reading' time every day, when they could read any book of their choice, without caring about book-reports or such. This excites Ramona and this becomes her favorite part about school. That evening, when Ramona sees her sister Beezus use 'homework' as an excuse to get out of playing with Willy Jean, Ramona gets an idea. She decides to use her 'Sustained Silent Reading' books as an excuse for homework, and Willy Jean lets her alone.
Ramona enjoys school very much. Being a lively child, she enjoys getting along with the popular fads at school. One week, the fad was hard-boiled eggs for lunch. One day, when Ramona tried breaking her hard-boiled egg on her head, she finds out that her mother had mistakenly given her a raw egg. She feels embarrassed and ashamed about it. The teacher supervising lunch asks her to go to Mrs. Larson, the school's secretary. There, Mrs. Larson washes her hair and leaves in a room to dry her hair. While she is there, she hears Mrs. Whaley speak of her as a show-off and a nuisance, and this shocks Ramona, who had always thought that her teacher liked her.
Ramona feels angry at her mother for the raw egg throughout the whole of the next day, which was a Saturday. Beezus, coming home from a sleepover where she hadn't slept at all, is grouchy too. The whole house has an unhappy atmosphere. The atmosphere relieves a bit when they sit for dinner, but it gets suddenly worse when the girls realize they were eating tongue. Their father, suddenly getting angry, decides to let them make dinner the next day. The girls decide to be extra good the next day to get out of their punishment. Their father doesn't forget though. The girls together make dinner, which, in spite of the many nearly-disastrous moments, turns out to be quite good. At dinner, all the unpleasantness of the previous day is forgotten and all is forgiven.
The next day, Ramona decides that she is not going to care if here teacher thought of her as a nuisance and tries to do her work by herself. But she suddenly feels nauseous and her head feels heavy. She doesn't tell Mrs. Whaley that she was feeling sick though, and tries to control the feeling. Suddenly she throws up in her classroom, right in front of everyone. She feels ashamed about it and allows herself to be led to Mrs. Larson's office. Her mother comes early from work to pick her up from school and takes care of her for the next few days until she gets better.
When she has taken leave, Ramona is asked to do a book report, by trying to sell a book. The book she is assigned doesn't interest her, but she decides to get creative. She plans to sell the book by doing a commercial, an enlists the help of 2 of her friends. The next day, book-report is a success. Ramona talks to her teacher about what she had overheard earlier, and Mrs. Whaley explains that she had meant it affectionately, and the nuisance part was about the egg. Ramona gets glad again to think her teacher didn't hate her.
The next Sunday is a rainy day, and the whole family is cross. Ramona and her mother argue about her cleaning her room. Her father keeps trying to sketch something, Beezus is angry about not being allowed to go to a sleepover, the TV was blank, and the log in the fireplace refused to burn. As evening came, Mr. Quimby decides to take his family out for dinner to improve the moods, in spite of the tight economy. But when they are at there, they see an old man, who salutes Ramona and speaks to her. After they had eaten, they are told that the old man had paid their bills too, because he thought of them as a nice family, and that he missed his children and grandchildren. This makes all of them realize the truth of it, that they were lucky to be such a family. And so, the day ends happily.
