On Tuesday, April 12 children's book author Beverly Cleary will celebrate her One-Hundredth birthday!
Beverly Cleary is the author of 42 books, including the celebrated series Henry Huggins, Ralph the Mouse, Beezus and Ramona. They are all still in print, having sold between 75 and 99 million copies worldwide. Cleary has been awarded every conceivable honor: she has been declared a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, cited by the National Endowment of the Arts for her contribution to children’s literature and received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association.
Cleary started writing when, as a librarian, a boy asked here 'Where are the books about us?' The books she wrote beginning in about 1950 are still popular probably because of her ability to get into the heads of Romana, Beezus, Henry Huggins and her other characters. She expresses what they are thinking, and it's not always sweet!
I have read a few appreciations of Beverly Cleary recently in the NY Times. Here are links to those columns
http://nyti.ms/1SGELve
http://nyti.ms/1UPrFTh
A Oregon PBS documentary, “Discovering Beverly Cleary,” is about the life of Beverly Cleary
There are data that say that, apart from schoolwork, 57% of children do not read at all. Other data indicate that a child raised in a home with a rich verbal interaction, including reading aloud, has a much better chance for later academic success than one raised in a home where there is no reading. Video games do not qualify as verbal stimulation.
To quote from Nicholas Kristoff, in the Times, "We measure child poverty by household income, but a better metric might be how often a child hears stories read aloud. To honor Cleary’s birthday, school organizations are calling on kids and parents to “drop everything and read.”
The "drop everything and read" is a fantastic website dedicated to Beverly Cleary's books. There is a 'resources' tab that includes several down-loadable assets aimed at helping children to write. What a great opportunity for you and your kids to get together! Take a break from the dismal national and international news and create a fantastic world by writing with your kids.
Celebrate Beverly Cleary on her hundredth birthday!
