Happy 100th Birthday, Beverly Cleary!

[PennySycamore]

Today is the beloved author of children's literature, Beverly Cleary's 100th birthday.  As a little girl, Beverly had a lot of trouble learning to read until a librarian took her aside and introduced her to some books she thought that Beverly would like.  A sixth grade teacher told her she should write children's books.  Beverly knew that the kids in kid's books tended to be too-good-to-be-believed and so she wrote her characters as imperfect real kids.

Beverly Cleary

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/11/living/beverly-cleary-100th-birthday/index.html

Who are your favorite Beverly Cleary characters?   I love Otis Spofford and Ellen Tebbits most especially, but I love them all!

Happy Birthday, Beverly!

[older than allosaurs]

6 minutes ago, PennySycamore said:

Who are your favorite Beverly Cleary characters?   I love Otis Spofford and Ellen Tebbits most especially, but I love them all!

Happy Birthday, Beverly!

Oh I am so happy to know another Otis and Emily fan. I still have my childhood copy of Ellen Tebbits. I didn't know about the Ramona series until my own children came along.

[catlady]

Last summer I found in a flea market Jean And Johnny, one of her young adult stories.  I ended up ordering a few more online, The Luckiest Girl, Fifteen, and Sister Of The Bride.  They're definitely products of the fifties and early sixties, but still cute stories, and well-written.

[RandomTrivia]

I've mostly read the Ramona/Henry/Beezus books, but I am working on collecting them all.  Need to see which ones I'm still missing, though.

I also have to recommend the autobiography/memoir books that Beverly Cleary wrote - A Girl from Yamhill and My Own Two Feet.  I didn't know these existed until a year or so ago, when I happened across a copy of one of them.  I haven't finished reading them, but the parts I have read are very good.  So far the books mostly deal with her childhood, college, and early career; I'm not sure how much she talks about her writing career in them, it's mostly about her librarian work. 

I really should write her a fan letter.  I wonder if she signs autographs. 

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

I've enjoyed reading many of Beverly Cleary's books, but I think my favorite is still Socks. It's a book about a cat, told from the cat's perspective. My seven year old is discovering the joys of the Ramona books. Hooray for Beverly Cleary! I hope she enjoyed her birthday.

[Playagirl]

Sister of the Bride and Fifteen are the only two I remember reading. I must have been in my early teens. Clean, sweet, innocent books.

[Maggie Mae]

Ramona! Henry Huggins! 

 

And no one has mentioned Ralph S. Mouse, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, and Runaway Ralph yet. Oh and Socks. 

I had no idea that there were so many Henry books. I think I only read one of them. And I never finished the Ramona series. The last one that was  out when I was a kid was Ramona Forever, I think. Romana gets a baby sibling and the cat dies.