Susan Kushner

Susan Kushner is a fictional character in the Ramona series of novels by Beverly Cleary.

Susan Kushner
Ramona (novel series) character
First appearance	Beezus and Ramona (1955)
Last appearance	Ramona's World (1999)
Created by	Beverly Cleary
Portrayed by	Sierra McCormick
In-universe information
Nickname	Susan Snoozin (by Ramona)
Gender	Female
Occupation	Student/Model

Fictional character biography

The character Susan first appears in Beezus and Ramona at Ramona's party, although it's not specified whether or not she's Susan Kushner. When Ramona Quimby starts kindergarten, they become rivals which continues through much of the series. In Ramona the Pest, Susan's S's are said to look like worms crawling, as many students with S's in their names are in Miss Binney's class. She has long curls described as blonde in Ramona's World, although Ramona the Pest describes Susan's hair color as "a sort of reddish brown".

Relationship between Susan and Ramona

Susan is portrayed as being somewhat snobby and overachieving; in the book of her debut, her beautiful curls becomes the object of Ramona's fascination and leads to the girl's suspension from kindergarten for pulling the curls out of curiosity. In the following book, set a year later, Susan copies a stereotypically-designed wise paper bag owl designed by Ramona during an arts and crafts session, which is destroyed by an enraged Ramona after Susan is praised by the entire classroom for her work. She is depicted as a typical perfectionist; well-behaved in class, calm, and hard-working, as opposed to Ramona's active imagination and unintentionally troublemaking personality. However, she is a bit of a snob, exaggerating the pain felt after Ramona tugged her curly hair in Ramona the Pest for attention. In the final book of the series, she refuses a slice of cake during Ramona's birthday celebration claiming that it is probably unhygienic and eating an apple instead. However, soon afterwards she confesses her lifelong struggle for perfection among adults, and her relationship with Ramona seems to improve afterwards. In the same book, it is revealed that her parents tell Ramona to "be nice".

Film

In the 2010 film Ramona and Beezus, Susan is portrayed by Sierra McCormick and seen as more of a bully than anywhere else in the series. She is portrayed as being conceited, auditioning to star in television advertisements for a well-known brand of peanut butter as its princess mascot, donning a tiara at school, albeit whether or not she was selected for the part is unknown.