toes inside her shoes, and finally said, “I squeaked my shoes the first day of school.”

“That’s not being much of a nuisance,”

said Mr. Quimby.

“And when I got egg in my hair, Mrs.

Whaley said I was a nuisance,” confessed

Ramona, “and then I threw up in school.”

“But you didn’t do those things on pur-

pose,” her father pointed out. “Now run

along. I have studying to do.”

Ramona thought this answer over and

decided that since her parents agreed, they must be right. Well, Mrs. Whaley could just 139

go jump in a lake, even though her teacher had written, without wasting words, that she missed her. Ramona was going to give her

book report any way she wanted. So there,

Mrs.Whaley.

Ramona went to her room and looked at

her table, which the family called “Ramona’s studio,” because it was a clutter of crayons, different kinds of paper, Scotch tape, bits of yarn, and odds and ends that Ramona used

for amusing herself. Then Ramona thought

a moment, and suddenly, filled with inspiration, she went to work. She knew exactly

what she wanted to do and set about doing

it. She worked with paper, crayons, Scotch tape, and rubber bands. She worked so hard and with such pleasure that her cheeks grew pink. Nothing in the whole world felt as

good as being able to make something from

a sudden idea.

Finally, with a big sigh of relief, Ramona 140

leaned back in her chair to admire her work: three cat masks with holes for eyes and

mouths, masks that could be worn by hook-

ing rubber bands over ears. But Ramona did not stop there. With pencil and paper, she began to write out what she would say. She was so full of ideas that she printed rather

than waste time in cursive writing. Next she phoned Sara and Janet, keeping her voice low and trying not to giggle so she wouldn’t disturb her father any more than necessary, and explained her plan to them. Both her friends giggled and agreed to take part in the book report. Ramona spent the rest of the evening memorizing what she was going to say.

The next morning on the bus and at

school, no one even mentioned Ramona’s

throwing up. She had braced herself for

some remark from Yard Ape, but all he said was, “Hi, Superfoot.” When school started, Ramona slipped cat masks to Sara and Janet, handed her written excuse for her absence

to Mrs. Whaley, and waited, fanning away

escaped fruit flies, for book reports to begin.

After arithmetic, Mrs. Whaley called on

several people to come to the front of the room to pretend they were selling books to the class. Most of the reports began,“This is 142

a book about . . .” and many, as Beezus had predicted, ended with “. . . if you want to find out what happens next, read the book.”