I had no idea Ms. Cleary was still with us. And yet her last book was in her eighties, she looked great at age 90, and she still sounds perfectly lucid today. Forty of her books are still in print. Her ideas on child-raising are perhaps a bit retrograde, but I don’t have it in me to give Beverly freaking Cleary a hard time.
Al Jaffee is still drawing the fold-in, having apparently blown all of his retirement savings in Potrzebie Enterprises.
Sergio Aragonés still draws the “Marginal Thinking” strips and “A MAD Look At” features. He’s gettin’ up there, too, having been with MAD since 1963. Jaffee is the only contributor whose work has appeared in more issues.
… and they have both outlived Bill “Ill Gotten” Gaines.
I was a big Beverly Cleary fan as a boy. (And I’m in my fifties, and there are certainly people who read her as kids who are considerably older than I am…) I enjoyed Mitch and Amy quite a bit, and many of the Henry Huggins books, though they did begin to run together after a while.
The one that really stands out to me, though, was and is Ramona the Pest. In retrospect Cleary is not the world’s best stylist, and the plot is a bit thin, and you could make other complaints, I suppose–but I recall reading that book shortly after it came out and saying to my father, “You know, this book really understands what it’s like to be a kid.* I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that understood what that’s like as well as this one does.” To which he replied, “Maybe the author IS a kid.” I gave him the fisheye.
(I became a children’s author, mostly of nonfiction, and elementary teacher, and I do a presentation about writing, reading, and teaching with children’s books; Ramona the Pest is one of the ones I highlight. Thanks, Mrs. Cleary!)
*The scene that most did it for me, if memory serves, was one in which Ramona and her friend Howie both claim ownership of the same ribbon. One of the parents, eager to get the argument over with and to instill nice middle-class values in the children, come up with a bright idea: “I know! You can SHARE the ribbon!” The kids want nothing to do with this obviously dumb solution; Ramona muses that she would probably rather let Howie have the whole damn thing than have to share it. I suspect I had been reading too many treacly books with morals. Like “We love to share!”
I only read ‘Fifteen’ by Beverly Cleary, a million years ago when I was in my teens, and I adored it. It was a library book that I took out again and again half a dozen times, and I was kind of thrilled to see variations on ‘this is a very good book’ other readers had written, covering the inside of the covers, front and back. That book now portrays a lost and distant past, but I thought it was one of the best books every written.
I had exactly the same reaction, based on the Henry Huggins books and Ellen Tebbits.
I’m only a few years younger than you, so I wasn’t that far removed from even her oldest books. It amazes me that kids today are not only still reading her books, they’re still in print! She’s not just a period piece; new generations are still discovering her.
Yeah, she was definitely part of the new writers that got kids. I remember reading Ramona the Pest and totally understanding her frustration when no one knew what she meant by the “dawnzer song” ("O Say can you see, by the dawn’s early light).
Rock on, Ms. Cleary!
And as good as her children’s books are, her autobiographies, A Girl from Yamhill and My Own Two Feet, are even better, IMO.
I read so many of her books as a child. When I went to Portland a few years back, I was a bit giddy knowing I was in Ramona’s hometown. Thanks for the thread- it brings back many happy memories!
I just recently finished reading Ramona the Pest with my five year old, and we both enjoyed it so much. I hadn’t read it recently, so I wasn’t that clear going in on whether or not it would age well, but my daughter was so avidly interested in finding out what Ramona would do next.
salinqmind, Fifteen was also my personal favorite, I read that book a million times. Her YA titles are maybe the least-remembered, I think because a lot of the childhood antics in the Ramona and Henry books are viewed as classic, while there is more pressure on YA books to be timely. Obviously, Cleary’s YA takes place in a very different time, but they are so well-written, especially Fifteen and The Luckiest Girl. I think some readers would still enjoy them today.
Oh yes, the always happy rosy-cheeked children who never fight, never get dirty, who accept the words of responsible adults without question, and which have never existed in any universe, ever (except maybe that planet in *A Wrinkle in Time * where everyone is brainwashed by IT to do everything in unison so there can never be any dissent).
The Beverly Cleary book that resonated the most for me was the one where Ramona’s mother goes back to work so she has to be babysat by Howie’s grandmother, and has to put up with Howie’s bratty baby sister, who is Grandma’s favorite and can do no wrong, so Ramona and Howie get blamed instead.
I read that a few years after my father died. For several months he was in various hospitals more than he was home and my mother spent all the time she possibly could with him. That meant that after school (half-day kindergarden so we’re talking the whole endless afternoon) I had to be babysat by my grandmother along with my spoiled snotbag younger cousin, who was Grandma’s favorite, who could do no wrong, so I got blamed for everything instead.
When I’d complain, my mother’s reaction was basically “sucks to be you.” (Yes, compared to facing widowhood at 42 with no job, no savings, and 6 kids from age 6-18, putting up with a snotty cousin for a few hours isn’t much of a cross to bear, but kindergardeners aren’t known for that sort of deep understanding).
Man, it was a relief to have my feelings understood and validated by an adult.
Both of these people had an impact on my childhood, Al Jaffee in particular. His self-illustrated biography is worth reading.
I greatly liked all the Henry Huggins novels, including the one with Beezus, but only saw the movies about Ramona (with Selena Gomez). Also Otis Spofford, who only had the one book, was a good read. Beverly Cleary is a treasure.
I forget whether Otis’ book came before or after Ellen Tebbits, but he did show up in her book, basically being a pest to her and her best friend Austine.
I read all of Beverly Cleary when I was in elementary school. I am now 61.
I remember how amazed I was to google her and find out she was still alive.
Thank you, Md. Cleary, for the impact you had on my childhood and adolescence.
I gather you’re referring to Ramona and Her Mother.