In response, she wrote her first book, Henry Huggins, which was published in 1950. Her first job was as a librarian in Yakima, Washington, where she met many children who were searching for the same books that she had always hoped to find as a child herself. She moved to California to attend the University of California, Berkeley, and after graduation with a B.A in English in 1938, studied at the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she earned a degree in librarianship in 1939. Thereafter, she was a frequent visitor to the library, though she rarely found the books she most wanted to read - those about children like herself. It wasn't until she was in third grade that she found enjoyment from books, when she started reading The Dutch Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins. She was slow in learning to read, due partly to her dissatisfaction with the books she was required to read and partly to an unpleasant first grade teacher. When she was 6, her family moved to Portland, Oregon, where she went to grammar and high school. Mouse.īeverly Cleary was born Beverly Atlee Bunn in McMinnville, Oregon. Some of her best known and loved characters are Ramona Quimby and her sister Beatrice ('Beezus'), Henry Huggins, and Ralph S. Her characters are normal children facing challenges that many of us face growing up, and her stories are liberally laced with humour. Huzzah! I love the young Ramona who delights in noise.Īnd the final episode, where Ramona participates in the church nativity scene dressed in a home-made ragtag sheep costume, is priceless.Beverly Cleary (ApMarch 25, 2021) was the author of over 30 books for young adults and children. Ramona and her friend Howie make coffee-can stilts and delight in stomping all over the sidewalk belting out '99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.' It takes them all through the evening through a rain shower, but they make it from 99 down to 1.

'Didn't grown-ups think children worried about anything but jack-o-lanterns? Didn't they know children worried about grown-ups?' She's reassured repeatedly that the family will get another pumpkin to carve, but that's not the issue. Beezus fights with the parents, which makes Ramona cry. Everyone is short-tempered, and the cat doesn't like the cheap cat food, so he eats the jack-o-lantern. Ramona faces her usual grade-school trials and tribulations, but this time her troubles are driven mainly by family dynamics. Ramona is back in second grade and her father has lost his job.

Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary