1. All About Beverly Cleary
By Miss Bonaria

2. Beverly Cleary’s Childhood
Beverly Cleary was born on April 12, 1916 in McMinnville, Oregon.
McMinnville was so small that it had no library. So Beverly’s mother borrowed books from the state library and set up her own library. This was where Beverly began to love books.

3. Beverly Cleary’s Childhood
Beverly had trouble reading when she was little. She didn’t like her first grade teacher or the books the teacher had her read.

4. Beverly Cleary’s Childhood
To make matters worse Beverly had to stay home for a while that year when she was sick with the chicken pox.
When she finally came back to school, she discovered that the class had been divided into reading groups, and she was in the bottom one. This made her very upset, and caused her to dislike reading and school even more.

5. Beverly Cleary’s Childhood
When Beverly was in third grade, she read a book called The Dutch Twins that she really liked. After this, she finally started to enjoy reading. She spent a lot of time getting books from the library.
Even though she liked the books she was finding, she was disappointed that there weren’t any funny stories about children like her and her neighborhood friends.

6. Beverly Cleary’s Childhood
When she was in seventh grade, the librarian at Beverly’s school suggested that she write children’s books when she grew up.
Beverly liked this idea a lot. She wanted to write the kinds of books she couldn’t find in her library.

7. Beverly Cleary’s Adult Life
Beverly Cleary moved to California when she was 19 to go to college.
She went to library school and received a degree in librarianship in 1939.
Her first librarian job was in Yakima, Washington. Having story hours for children was her favorite part of her job.

8. Beverly Cleary’s Adult Life
Many of the children she met at the library wanted to read books about kids like themselves, just like she did when she was young.
Their requests inspired her to write her first book. It was about a boy named Henry and his dog Ribsy. The book was called Henry Huggins. It was published in 1950.

9. Beverly Cleary’s Adult Life
Beverly married her husband, Clarence T. Cleary, in He died in 2004, but she is still alive!
After the success of Henry Huggins, she continued writing the kinds of books she had wanted to read when she was little. Her first book about the Quimby sisters, Beezus and Ramona, was published in 1955.

10. Beverly Cleary’s Books
Ramona Books
Beezus and Ramona
Ramona the Pest
Ramona the Brave
Ramona and Her Father
Ramona and Her Mother
Ramona Quimby, Age 8
Ramona Forever
Ramona’s World

11. Beverly Cleary’s Books
Henry Books
Henry Huggins
Henry and Ribsy
Henry and Beezus
Henry and the Clubhouse
Henry and the Paper Route
Ribsy

12. Beverly Cleary’s Books
Ralph Books
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Runaway Ralph
Ralph S. Mouse

13. Beverly Cleary’s Books
Leigh Books
Dear Mr. Henshaw
Strider

14. Beverly Cleary’s Books
Ellen Tebbits
Emily’s Runaway Imagination
Mitch and Amy
Muggie Maggie
Otis Spofford
Socks
Lucky Chuck

15. Beverly Cleary’s Books
In addition to all her books for children, Beverly Cleary wrote two autobiographies, or books about her own life.
They are called A Girl From Yamhill and My Own Two Feet.

16. More About Beverly Cleary’s Books
Beverly’s books are available in 15 languages in over 20 foreign countries.
The television channel PBS (channel 13) made a 10-part show based on the Ramona books. It is available in many video stores and libraries.

17. Beverly Cleary’s Influences
Beverly Cleary’s books have been so popular that people often wonder how she got her ideas for her books.
The truth is, she didn’t have to think very hard to create her characters.

18. Beverly Cleary’s Influences
When she started writing, she remembered what she and her neighborhood friends were like when they were little.
She also thought about all the children who came to her library story hours.

19. Beverly Cleary’s Influences
She also remembered advice from her mom, and her belief that, “the best writing is simple and filled with humor.”
She kept all of these things in mind as she wrote her books.

20. Beverly Cleary’s Influences
Some of her books even have specific references to her own life.
For example, Henry Huggins and Beezus and Ramona Quimby all live in Oregon on Klickitat Street, a real street close to where Beverly grew up.
The book Mitch and Amy is about a set of boy-girl twins who live in California. Beverly and her husband lived in California while they were raising their own set of boy-girl twins.

21. Beverly Cleary’s Awards
Beverly won the Newbery Medal for Dear Mr. Henshaw in 1984.
Ramona and Her Father became a Newbery Honor book in Ramona Quimby, Age 8 was named a Newbery Honor book in 1982.

22. Beverly Cleary’s Awards
Beverly also won the American Library Association’s 1975 Laura Ingalls Wilder, the Catholic Library Association’s Regina Medal in 1980, and the University of Southern Mississippi’s Silver Medallion in All of these awards were for writing excellent children’s books.
She was also the American author nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in This is an international award given to someone who has written lots of great books for children. Even though she didn’t win, it was a big honor for her to be nominated.

23. Beverly Cleary’s Other Honors
Beverly has been honored in other ways too. The Hollywood Branch of the Multnomah County Library, near where she lived when she was young, has a map of Henry, Beezus, and Ramona’s Klickitat Street neighborhood hanging in its lobby.
The map shows the real-life locations of many special landmarks mentioned in Beverly’s books, including Ramona’s house, Henry’s paper route, Beezus and Ramona’s school, Ellen Tebbits’s house, the church Ramona performed a Christmas play at in Ramona and Her Father, and the store where Ramona got her bridesmaid’s dress for her Aunt Bea’s wedding in Ramona Forever.

24. Beverly Cleary’s Other Honors
In 1995, the Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden for Children was opened in Grant Park in Portland, Oregon.
The garden has statues of Henry Huggins, Henry’s dog Ribsy, and Ramona.
There are also two clay statues of Ramona in the Gresham Regional Library, another branch of the Multnomah County Library.

25. Beverly Cleary’s Other Honors
Ramona statue
Henry Huggins statue

26. Beverly Cleary’s Other Honors
Ribsy statue
Clay statues of Ramona (located in the Gresham Regional Library)

27. Hooray For Beverly Cleary!
From the time Beverly Cleary was young, she wanted to read books about kids just like her. When she started writing her books, her goal was to create stories that were funny and had characters that kids could relate to.
She has certainly achieved that goal! Even though some of them are over 50 years old, Beverly’s books are still very popular with kids today.

28. Let’s Talk!
What Beverly Cleary books have you read? Would you recommend them to a friend?
Why have her books been so popular, both today and when they were first written?
When you think about what happened to her in first grade, why is it surprising that she became an author?
What is the most interesting fact you learned about Beverly Cleary?
What else would you like to learn about her?

29. More About Beverly Cleary
To learn more, you can visit Beverly Cleary's Official Website.
The website contains information about Beverly’s life, facts about her books and characters, and some fun trivia games. See how much you know about her books!