Mrs. Meacham pushes her students to be proper spellers; spelling is a difficult subject for Ramona.

Beezus, a 14-year-old just entering high school, starts speaking French around the house, spending a lot of time on the phone talking about boys and asking her friends about who she should date, which makes her little sister mad.

Later, she cares for the Kidds' cat when they go away on vacation for a week and she discovers that the responsibility of catsitting isn't as easy as it looks.

After the other girls tease her and Mrs. Quimby comforts her, she finally decides to eat a slice of cake.

The following characters appear in the novel: Reviewers' reactions to Cleary's books continues to be positive, as seen in Kirkus Reviews: "Ramona returns, and she’s as feisty as ever… Cleary picks up on all the details of fourth grade, from comparing hand calluses to the distribution of little plastic combs by the school photographer.

This year Ramona is trying to improve her spelling, and Cleary is especially deft at limning the emotional nuances as Ramona fails and succeeds, goes from sad to happy, and from hurt to proud… Despite a brief mention of nose piercing, Cleary’s writing still reflects a secure middle-class family and untroubled school life, untouched by the classroom violence or the broken families of the 1990s.

After her husband Clarence died in 2004, Beverly spent her remaining years at an assisted living community.