Early life

Born Beverly Atlee Bunn on April 12, 1916, in McMinnville, Oregon, Cleary was an only child and lived on a farm. Her mother was a school teacher and her father was a farmer. When she was six years old, her family moved to Portland, Oregon, where she attended elementary and high school.

In first grade, Cleary's teacher placed her in a group for struggling readers. Cleary said, "The first grade was separated into three reading groups—Bluebirds, Redbirds, and Blackbirds. I was a Blackbird. To be a Blackbird was to be disgraced. I wanted to read, but somehow could not." With the help of a school librarian who introduced her to books she enjoyed, Cleary caught up by third grade and started to spend a lot of time reading and at the library. By sixth grade, a teacher suggested that Cleary should become a children's writer based on essays she'd written for class assignments.

After high school, Cleary entered Chaffey Junior College with aspirations of becoming a children's librarian. After two years at Chaffey, she was accepted at the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned a bachelor of arts in English in 1938. She also met her future husband, Clarence Cleary, during her time at Berkeley. In 1939, she graduated from the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Washington and accepted a year-long position as a children's librarian in Yakima, Washington. Her parents disapproved of her relationship with Clarence Cleary, so the couple eloped and were married in 1940. After the end of World War II, they settled in Carmel, California.

Career

As a children's librarian, Cleary empathized with her young patrons who had difficulty finding books with characters they could identify with and she struggled to find enough books to suggest that would appeal to them. After a few years of making recommendations and performing live storytelling in her role as a librarian, Cleary decided to start writing children's books about characters that young readers could relate to. Cleary has said, “I believe in that ‘missionary spirit’ among children’s librarians. Kids deserve books of literary quality, and librarians are so important in encouraging them to read and selecting books that are appropriate.”

Cleary's first book, Henry Huggins (1950), was accepted for immediate publication and was the first in a series of fictional chapter books about Henry, his dog Ribsy, his neighborhood friend Beezus and her little sister Ramona. Like many of her later works, Henry Huggins is a novel about people living ordinary lives and is based on Cleary's own childhood experiences, the kids in her neighborhood growing up, as well as children she met while working as a librarian.

Cleary's first book to center a story on the Quimby sisters, Beezus and Ramona, was published in 1955. A publisher asked her to write a book about a kindergarten student. Cleary resisted, because she had not attended kindergarten, but later changed her mind after the birth of her twins. She has written two memoirs, A Girl from Yamhill (1988) and My Own Two Feet (1995). During a 2011 interview for the Los Angeles Times, at age 95, Cleary stated, "I've had an exceptionally happy career."

Critical reception

Pat Pflieger, professor of children's literature at West Chester University commented: "Cleary's books have lasted because she understands her audience. She knows they're sometimes confused or frightened by the world around them, and that they feel deeply about things that adults can dismiss." Eliza Dresang, professor in Children and Youth Services at the University of Washington Information School said, "Those books don't seem so radical now, but they were when she was writing them." Dresang also said the topics covered were portrayed with honesty and accuracy. Twentieth-Century Children's Writers said, "Beverly Cleary's impact as a children's writer cannot be overestimated... her extraordinary talent in creating memorable young characters whose exuberant spirit and zest for life attract young and old readers alike."

Honors and legacy

In 1975, Cleary won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association for "substantial and lasting contributions to children's literature". She was U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1984. In April 2000 she was named Library of Congress Living Legend in the Writers and Artists category for her contributions to the cultural heritage of the United States. She received the National Medal of Arts in 2003.

Cleary's books have been published in 20 different languages and have been recognized by many awards and honors. Dear Mr. Henshaw won the Newbery Medal in 1984, and; Newbery Honors were conferred on Ramona and Her Father in 1978 and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 in 1982. She won the 1981 National Book Award in category Children's Fiction (paperback) for Ramona and Her Mother; a William Allen White Children's Book award for Socks (1973); the Catholic Library Association's Regina Medal (1980); and the Children's Book Council's Every Child Award (1985). Cleary's books have been read on PBS and ABC-TV.

In 2012, Ramona the Pest was ranked number 24 among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with primarily U.S. audience. The Mouse and the Motorcycle (89) and Ramona and Her Father (94) were also among the Top 100.

Publisher HarperCollins recognizes her birthday, April 12, as National Drop Everything and Read Day (D.E.A.R.), in promotion of sustained silent reading.

In Portland, Oregon, the Hollywood branch of the Multnomah County Library, near where she lived as a child, commissioned a map of Henry Huggins's Klickitat Street neighborhood for its lobby wall. Statues of her characters Henry Huggins, the Huggins dog Ribsy, and Ramona Quimby can be found in Portland's Grant Park in the Hollyrood-Fernwood neighborhood. In June 2008, the neighborhood's K-8 school, formerly Fernwood Grammar School and once attended by Cleary, was officially renamed Beverly Cleary School.

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 has a 220-student residential hall at the University of California, Berkeley named after her, called Beverly Cleary Hall.

Cleary has been mentioned as a major influence by other authors, including Laurie Halse Anderson, Judy Blume, Lauren Myracle and Jon Scieszka.

Works

• Henry Huggins, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1950 †
• Ellen Tebbits, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1951
• Henry and Beezus, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1952
• Otis Spofford Atlantic Monthly Press, 1953
• Henry and Ribsy, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1954
• Beezus and Ramona, Lippincott, 1955
• Fifteen, Harper, 1956
• Henry and the Paper Route. Harper, 1957 †
• The Luckiest Girl, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1958
• Jean and Johnny, Morrow, 1959
• The Hullabaloo ABC, Lippincott, 1960
• The Real Hole, McGraw Hill, 1960
• Leave It to Beaver, Harper, 1960
• Here's Beaver!, Harper, 1961
• Beaver and Wally, Harper, 1961
• Two Dog Biscuits, Morrow, 1961
• Emily's Runaway Imagination, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1961
• Henry and the Clubhouse, Morrow, 1962 †
• Sister of the Bride, Morrow, 1963
• Ribsy, Morrow, 1964 †
• The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Lippincott, 1965
• The Growing-Up Feet, Morrow, 1967
• Mitch and Amy, Morrow, 1967
• Ramona the Pest, Lippincott, 1968 ‡
• Runaway Ralph, Lippincott, 1970
• Socks, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973
• Ramona the Brave, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975 ‡
• Ramona and Her Father, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977 ‡
• Ramona and Her Mother, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979 ‡
• Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981 ‡
• Ralph S. Mouse, Lippincott, 1982
• Dear Mr. Henshaw, Morrow, 1983
• Ramona Forever, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984 ‡
• The Ramona Quimby Diary, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984
• Lucky Chuck, Morrow, 1984
• Janet's Thingamajigs, Morrow, 1987
• A Girl from Yamhill, Four Winds Press, 1988
• Muggie Maggie, Four Winds Press, 1990
• Strider, Morrow, 1991
• Petey's Bedtime Story, Morrow, 1993
• My Own Two Feet, Morrow, 1995
• Ramona's World, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1999 ‡
• Two Times the Fun (omnibus containing The Real Hole, Two Dog Biscuits, The Growing-Up Feet, and Janet's Thingamajigs), G.P. Puntam's Sons, 2005

† Henry Huggins series (1950-1964)
‡ Ramona series (1955-1999)

Adaptations

• Ramona (1988): 10-part Canadian TV series starred Sarah Polley as 8-year-old Ramona Quimby.
• Ramona and Beezus (2010): Movie starring Joey King as Ramona and Selena Gomez as Beezus.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]