It is the morning before Ramona Quimby’s first day of kindergarten at Glenwood School. Ramona waits in the living room with her older sister, Beatrice or “Beezus,” for their mother to take Ramona to school. Ramona is full of energy, and Beezus chastises her to stop being such a “pest” (1).

Mary Jane, a friend of Beezus, arrives at the Quimby house so she and Beezus can walk to school together. Mary Jane offers to walk Ramona to school, but Ramona refuses to let her—only a “real” grown-up, like her mother, should accompany Ramona to school. Mrs. Quimby agrees to be the one to take Ramona to school, which makes Ramona happy. Ramona opens the front door to her house to leave and notices that Mrs. Kemp, a neighbor and friend of her mother, is approaching the Quimby house. Mrs. Kemp has a son Ramona’s age, Howie, and a toddler-aged daughter, Willa Jean. Both Howie and Willa Jean are in tow when Mrs. Kemp reaches the Quimby home, and the group sets off to Glenwood School.

When they reach the school, Beezus’s friend Henry Huggins is the traffic boy at the corner of the school, and he escorts the group across the street.