Ramona and Her Mother

Throughout the series, Ramona demonstrates a love of books and reading and enjoys repeating words that she finds phonetically pleasing. Now, in second grade, Ramona’s language studies focus less on fostering a love of story and more on learning language mechanics. Correctly spelling words is far less fun, and she finds spelling tedious and confusing. Preferring to engage with language creatively, Ramona decorates her letters, “filling all the double oo’s she could find with crossed eyes and frowns” on a worksheet, which does not go over well with her teacher, Mrs. Rudge (64). Ramona desires others to see her as competent, and her challenges with spelling become a source of frustration and embarrassment. Because she is so deeply invested in words, Ramona worries that Mrs. Rudge doesn’t like her because she can’t spell well. When she overhears portions of her parents’ conversations, she hears the word “school” and assumes they are worried about her lack of spelling ability. Ramona’s frustrations with language and spelling point to the novel’s broader exploration of communication. The third-person narrative provides detailed insight into the way that Ramona’s mind works, while also demonstrating the difficulties of making that process clear to other people, who, in turn, often find her behavior perplexing.