Drop everything and celebrate children’s author Beverly Cleary — who turns 100 tomorrow, April 12. The beloved writer, who invented characters children can actually relate to, continues to draw in young readers into the magic and fun of books. She has influenced generation after generation of readers and writers, who adore her stories and wit.
For her birthday, we hope Mrs. Cleary will be asked to “sit here for the present.” Then, unlike Ramona, of “Ramona the Pest” fame, who misunderstood when her teacher told her to “sit here for the present,” Cleary will actually be given a gift. (Go ahead and fuss,” Cleary told Washington Post reporter Nora Krug about her birthday. “Everyone else is.”)
OK, let’s make a fuss. Cleary has sold over 75 million books in 25 languages and won dozens of awards. Cleary has won a National Book Award, a Newbery Medal and a National Medal of Art from the National Endowment of the Arts, among other accolades. In 2000, the Library of Congress gave her a Living Legend Award. Her last book was “Ramona’s World,” published in 1999; her more than 40 titles remain in print today.
The Today Show asked Cleary about her proudest accomplishment. She answered in her modest way, “That children love my books.”
Cleary always wanted to be a writer, but her mom convinced to find a more reliable means of making a living. So she became a children’s librarian. One day, a boy approached her and demanded to know “Where are the books about kids like us?” So she set about writing them; her first book, “Henry Huggins,” was published in 1950.
Cleary, who now lives in a retirement home in northern California, is particularly cherished in the Pacific Northwest due to her roots in Oregon and Washington. Many of her stories are set in Portland, where she grew up, including the Ramona series. She graduated from the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington and was the children’s librarian in Yakima. She eloped with her longtime beau, Clarence Cleary, 1940, who she met while studying at University of California-Berkeley.
In 2004, the University of Washington Information School completed fund-raising for the Beverly Cleary Endowed Chair for Children and Youth Services to honor her work and commitment to librarianship. In 2008, the school announced that she had been selected as the next recipient of the University’s Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus Award, the highest honor the University of Washington can bestow on a graduate.
Cleary doesn’t own a computer, and spends her days reading the newspaper, books and doing crossword puzzles. She watches some TV. Cleary told The Washington Post she empathizes with kids today: “I think children today have a tough time, because they don’t have the freedom to run around as I did —and they have so many scheduled activities.”
It’s Cleary’s great imagination, and understanding of what it’s like to be a kid, that are responsible for her popularity, generation after generation. Cleary’s freedom to run around as kid fueled her imagination. The characters in her book experience similar freedom. They experience childhood — funny, frightening and full of foibles. Such stories make people want to Drop Everything and Read.
From “The Mouse and the Motorcycle”: “Neither the mouse nor the boy was the least bit surprised that each could understand the other. Two creatures who shared a love for motorcycles naturally spoke the same language.”
Just as Beverly Cleary speaks the language of being a kid.
Happy Birthday, Beverly Cleary. Thank you for sharing your fabulous stories with us. Thanks for making us want to drop everything and read.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
