THE KLICKITAT STREET JOURNAL
Suzanne Peterson, Editor
EXPLORING THE WORKS OF BEVERLY CLEARY
May 5, 2013
NEWBERY WINNING AUTHOR
BEVERLY CLEARY is one of the most successful
American children’s authors, having sold over 90
million copies of her books worldwide. She has won
numerous literary awards, including the 1984 Newbery
Medal for Dear Mr. Henshaw and Newbery Honors for
Ramona and Her Father and Ramona Quimby, Age 8.
Cleary is the creator of such beloved characters as
Henry Huggins, Ellen Tebbits, and Ralph S. Mouse.
Most of them live on or near Klickitat Street, a real
street from Cleary’s childhood neighborhood in Oregon.
None have been more popular and enduring than
Ramona Quimby. The star of eight books, which have
been constantly in print since Beezus and Ramona was
first published in 1955, Ramona has charmed multiple
generations of readers for more than 50 years.
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THE WORLD OF RAMONA
NEWS
From Minor Character. To Breakout Star
IT’S HARD TO believe, but Ramona’s early role on Klickitat
Street was a minor one, as the pesky younger sister of Henry
Huggins’ pal Beezus. Her stubborn determination to be
included and her vivid imagination led to such misadventures
as locking Henry inside his clubhouse and blackmailing him
into teaching her the password. Beverly Cleary is the first to
admit that she never planned on Ramona becoming the star.
“I hadn’t really intended to write so much about her, but there
she was. She kept hanging around, and I kept having Ramona
ideas,” said Cleary. (Harper Collins) Those ideas led to first
an expanded role in Beezus and Ramona, then a starring turn
in Ramona The Pest. By 1999 there were eight books in the
Ramona series, spanning a timeframe of nearly 50 years.
Above: Originally, Ramona had been conceived as a minor character in books about
Henry Huggins and Beezus Quimby.
“I’ve done what I started to do,” Cleary stated, “to write books
that children would want to read, books that would let them
enjoy reading. I want them to discover that reading is more
.
than
something they have to do in school. Ramona and the
others are just the sort of kids who lived in my neighborhood
in Portland. Everything in the Ramona and Henry books could
have happened in Portland and probably did.” (Staino, 2010)
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ENCOURAGING LITERACY
NEWS
. AND READ!
DROP EVERYTHING
D.E.A.R. stands for “Drop Everything and Read,” a national
month-long celebration of reading designed to encourage
kids to read for pleasure. Letters from children describing
their schools’ D.E.A.R. activities inspired Cleary to
incorporate this project into Ramona Quimby, Age 8. Since
then, D.E.A.R. has grown in popularity and scope, and
nationwide D.E.A.R. programs are now held annually on
April 12th, in honor of Beverly Cleary’s birthday.
Above: Cleary was inspired by letters from children describing D.E.A.R. activities
to incorporate the project into Ramona Quimby, Age 8.
A RECURRING theme throughout the Ramona books is
Ramona’s eagerness to learn to read. From her first day of
kindergarten, she thinks in terms of “the literary myth.” This
theory suggests that at a young age, Ramona “has
internalized the idea that learning to read and write will lead
to personal, social, and economic improvement.” (Benson,
1999) This is presented in the books in a much less heavy.
handed
manner, however, as Ramona simply expects that
acquiring these skills will help her to “catch up with Beezus”
(Ramona the Pest) and the other big kids in the
neighborhood. Her enthusiasm for reading persists
throughout the series, even as she encounters frustrations
such as boring text like “Tom and Becky and their dog Pal
and their cat Fluff who could run, run, run” (Ramona the
Brave) and her teachers’ insistence on correct spelling.
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As Ramona’s reading skills improve, she acquires a feeling of
power. “Words leaped out at her from newspapers, signs, and
cartons. Crash, highway, salt, tires. The world was suddenly
full of words that Ramona could read.” (Ramona the Brave)
By third grade, Ramona is able to judge a book’s literary merit,
critiquing the story of an elderly couple adopting a stray cat as
inaccurate, because “cream cost too much…the most the old
people would give a cat was half-and-half.” (Ramona Quimby,
Age 8) Books are a source of both enjoyment and comfort, as
when she longs for her “Betsy book” while anxiously awaiting
her parents, who are late to pick her up from the babysitter.
(Ramona and Her Mother) The best part of third grade is
“Sustained Silent Reading,” because “she was not expected to
write lists of words she did not know… [Her teacher] did not
expect the class to write summaries of what they read either, so
she did not have to choose easy books to make sure she would
get her summary right.” (Ramona Quimby, Age 8) In the fourth
grade, Ramona shares her love of books by reading aloud to
her new baby sister: “she enjoyed the rhymes and read with
expression and dramatic gestures.” (Ramona’s World) The joy
of reading for pleasure resonates with children discovering this
love for themselves through Cleary’s books.
Writing, too, is a way in which Ramona establishes her
independence and “catches up” with Beezus and the other kids
on Klickitat Street. She achieves her first reward from writing
in Ramona the Brave, when she writes a note for her
mother that simply reads “Come. here, Mother. Come here to
me.” Her mother responds by appearing in Ramona’s bedroom
upon returning home from Open School Night. The note
“effectively summons the family support the anxious Ramona
needs.” (Benson, 1999)
Perhaps the biggest payoff of learning to write comes in
Ramona and her Father. Mr. Quimby’s smoking habit inspires
Ramona and Beezus to launch an anti-tobacco campaign,
papering the household with homemade posters reading
“Smoking is Hazardous to Your Health,” “Stop Air Pollution,”
and “Cigarettes Start Forest Fires.” In addition to learning to
spell new and bigger words, Ramona’s determined application
of her writing skills eventually lead to her father agreeing to
quit. “The success of the campaign, impossible without her
writing skills, demonstrates to her and readers the power of
literacy.” (Benson, 1999) Her reading and writing skills have
not only given her pleasure, but the power to effect change
within her family, and to feel like an equal. It’s an appealing
example for early readers to follow.
.
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“A WONDERFULY
REAL LITTLE GIRL”
NEWS
MUCH LIKE Ramona Quimby .herself, as a child Beverly
Cleary eagerly awaited starting school so she could learn to read.
Once in the classroom, however, she was disappointed. The
books available to children bore little relation to Cleary’s middleclass life in Portland, Oregon.
“I longed for funny stories about the sort of children who lived in
my neighborhood,” Cleary wrote in her memoir, My Own Two
Feet. Unable to find them, she decided that when she grew up
she would write them herself. (Paul, 2011) And she did. Cleary
set most of her books on Klickitat Street, a real street near her
childhood home. The situations her characters find themselves in
are ones that real kids experience: finding a stray dog, getting a
paper route, arguing with their best friends. More importantly,
the characters themselves are just like the children who read
about them. Cleary has a gift for getting right inside the mind of
a child and understanding the kinds of things they think about.
One of the best examples comes in Ramona the Pest when
Ramona’s kindergarten teacher reads aloud to the class from
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. While listening to the
story, a question that has always bothered her occurs to Ramona:
Above: “I am too a Merry Sunshine!” Ramona as she appears in Beezus and
Ramona, published in 1955.
“Miss Binney,” Ramona asked, “I want to know – how did
Mike Mulligan go to the bathroom when he was digging
the basement of the town hall?”
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The question stops the poor teacher in her tracks, but the rest
of the children await the answer with curious anticipation. It
is this scene in a nutshell which “wholly captures children’s
persistent need to relate what they read to their own lives.”
(Paul, 2011) Cleary states that one of her own children asked
her the same question about Mike Mulligan, prompting her to
include it in the book. Similarly, other episodes from her
books come from her own childhood memories, and those of
her children.
When creating her stories about Ramona and the other kids
on Klickitat Street, Cleary always remained mindful of her
former writing professor’s advice to make them about
“universal human experience grounded in the minutiae of
ordinary life.” (Paul 2011). Her stories address concerns that
all children have, and have continued to have throughout the
decades since Ramona first appeared in print. Haven’t all
children wanted to pull every tissue out of the box? Or
delighted in a new pair of rain boots or got angry at the kid
who copied their art project – these are the kinds of things
that weigh on children’s minds, and Cleary takes them
seriously, even as she allows for the humor that such
concerns can cause. It is her understanding – and more
importantly, her respect - for the inner workings of a young
child’s mind that make her books so enduringly popular.
Children recognize themselves in Ramona, and rejoice in
finding a character to whom they can relate.
.
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RAMONA’S TIMELESS APPEAL
Above: Cleary utilized two different illustrators for the majority of her
works. Louis Darling drew the original version of Ramona, left, in books
published in the 1950s and 60s. Alan Tiegreen took over with the books of
the 1970s through the rest of the series, creating Ramona’s look shown in
the center. When the books were reprinted in the early 21st century, Tracy
Dockray updated the illustrations for the entire series.
NEWS
.
HOW CAN a series of books, first published more than 50
years ago, remain just as popular and keep children as
entertained as ever in this age of text messaging and video
games?
When she first began writing, Cleary’s approach was to keep
the books from becoming dated by resolving to “ignore all
trends.” (Schwarz, 2011) For the most part, she held firm to
her original goal, avoiding pop culture references and topical
storylines that would set her stories firmly into any specific
time period. It cannot be denied, however, that the world she
created on Klickitat Street is a thing of the past. Cleary’s
characters explore the neighborhood and walk to school
unsupervised by adults. Most of the children have stay at
home mothers who bake cookies (although in later books,
Cleary gives a nod to progressiveness by having Ramona’s
mother get a part-time job to help the family make ends
meet). The girls wear dresses to school and play hopscotch,
while the boys ride bikes without helmets and build
clubhouses in their backyards. Ice cream cones cost a nickel;
you could get several pieces of bubblegum for a penny, and
the tooth fairy left a dime under your pillow.
Any child of today’s high-tech world will recognize that
these stories are set in an era that is long gone. But it doesn’t
seem to matter. Today’s young readers “have little difficulty
finding the stories resonant, though the protagonists,
NEWS
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situations, and even values fail to conform to current standards.”
(Schwarz, 2011)
In 1995, Barbara Chatton of Horn Book Magazine spoke to a
group of fourth graders who had identified Beverly Cleary
among their favorite authors (in a group that also included R.L.
Stine, author of the Goosebumps books). When discussing the
books, Chatton found that the children most often noticed the
discrepancies in things like the price of candy and ice cream.
When specifically asked to identify other things that differed
from their own experience, the kids pointed to the fact that their
schools do not have students like Henry Huggins as crossing
guards, but police officers or senior volunteers; they do not have
little trash cans in the schoolyard like the one Ramona hid behind
to avoid a substitute teacher in Ramona the Pest, but dumpsters
in areas where they are not allowed to go; and there is no such
thing as Show and Tell in most classrooms. However, none of
these things were too difficult to figure out, and they did not
detract from the children’s enjoyment of the stories.
When asked what they liked most about the Ramona books,
many of the children told Chatton that they liked them because
“they aren’t sad.” Others mentioned that they are funny, and
perhaps most importantly, that they like the characters “because
they did a lot of the things kids do.” And this is a major factor in
the books’ enduring success. Throughout the series, Ramona’s
biggest concerns are universal ones: she strives to please her
teachers, longs for a bicycle and a. best friend, argues with her
older sister and struggles with the challenges of growing up.
These are issues that resonate with elementary school children
today. Times have changed, but at their core, children have not.
“Children want the same things my generation wanted,”
Beverly Cleary explains. “A home with loving parents, and
children to play with in safe neighborhoods [and] funny books
about children like themselves.” (Paul, 2011) It is a wish that
Beverly Cleary has fulfilled for more than fifty years.
RAMONA GOES HOLLYWOOD!
PERHAPS the greatest testament to
the enduring appeal of Ramona
Quimby is the fact that a major
Hollywood movie, Ramona and
Beezus, was made in 2010. The film
was a success with critics and with
audiences of multiple generations of
readers who grew up with the
Ramona books. Ramona and Beezus
starred Joey King and Selena Gomez
in the title roles. Cleary herself was
pleased with the movie portrayal.
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THE HUMOR OF RAMONA
.
“ALTHOUGH CHILDREN long for laughter, too often…
adults feel the purpose of any book is to teach... Children would
learn so much more if they were allowed to relax, enjoy a story,
and discover what it is they want or need from books. They
might even learn to enjoy reading, especially if they found in
the early grades humorous books that make them laugh.”
(Smith, 2006). This has firmly remained Cleary’s philosophy
throughout the decades in which she has written for children.
Humor is a staple of all of her stories, even when she touches
on plotlines of a more serious nature, such as Ramona’s worries
about her father’s health as a chronic smoker in Ramona and
Her Father. Determined to make him quit, she papers the walls
of the Quimby household with homemade “No Smoking” signs
– but makes her letters too large, resulting in signs that read:
NO SMO
KING
- prompting Mr. Quimby to infuriate Ramona by inquiring,
“Say, who is this Mr. King?” She angrily tears down the signs
and begins again.
Above: An updated illustration of the Quimby family, from the 2002 reprint of
Ramona and Her Father, reacting to one of Ramona’s big ideas gone wrong.
It’s hard to imagine a child (or adult) anywhere who won’t find
episodes in the Ramona books to make them laugh out loud.
Can anyone really keep a straight face when she cracks what
she thinks is a hard-boiled egg (which turns out to be raw) on
her head (Ramona Quimby, Age 8), squeezes an entire tube of
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toothpaste into the bathroom sink (Ramona and Her
Mother), or crowns herself with a tiara made of burs,
resulting in an emergency home haircut? (Ramona and Her
Father) One of the funniest, most often recalled scenes is in
Ramona the Brave, when a frustrated, tearful Ramona
stamps her foot and shouts “I’m going to say a bad word!”
Her family falls silent, and her mother gives her permission
to say the bad word if it will make her feel better:
“Ramona clenched her fists and took a deep breath.
“Guts!” she yelled. “Guts! Guts! Guts!” There.
That should show them.” (Ramona the Brave)
The reader can hardly help but join in as the rest of the
family dissolves into helpless laughter. Still, her parents
quickly recover and comfort her. Beezus shares some
experiences from her own earlier childhood when their
parents laughed at her when she was being serious,
consoling Ramona with her support. After everyone makes
up, Ramona asks for clarification:
“Isn’t guts a bad word?”
Mrs. Quimby thought for a moment. “I wouldn’t say
it’s exactly a bad word. It isn’t the nicest word in
the world, but there are worse words.”
Ramona wondered what could be worse than guts.
NEWS
.
This episode is perhaps the most perfect example of
Cleary’s affectionate humor. Despite laughing at her,
Ramona’s family is quick to rally around her and explain
the joke, even providing their own examples of being
misunderstood. “She’s deeply respectful of her characters –
nobody gets a laugh at the expense of another…I think kids
appreciate that they’re on a level playing field with adults.”
(Paul, 2011)
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.
READ ALOUD RAMONA
,
Reading aloud is a classic parent-child activity, particularly
before the child can read on his or her own. There are many
benefits to continuing this practice, even after a child is an
established reader. When elementary school teachers read to
students, they enhance students' understanding and their
desire to read independently. (Ivey, 2003) Children who first
hear a book read aloud often want to read it again for
themselves. And what could be better after reading a great
book than discovering it has a sequel – or, in the case of
Ramona, seven sequels?
Having an adult available to explain difficult words and
concepts takes much of the frustration out of reading for
younger children. (Ivey, 2003) Kids reading Ramona the Pest
may be just as puzzled as Ramona when her teacher explains
that “present” means not only a gift, but a period of time:
“Present should mean a present, just as attack should mean to
stick tacks into people.” This is a good introduction for a
discussion about dual meanings of words, which are often
confusing for children of Ramona’s age, as well as older
children who struggle with reading.
Ramona herself is an eager reader, and thrilled with the power
she develops over words throughout the series. Her
enthusiasm is contagious – Ramona makes books sound like
fun, and kids want to experience that fun for themselves.
Finally, today’s parents and teachers have likely grown up
reading the Ramona books themselves. Reading aloud is an
opportunity to pass on these beloved stories to their children and
students, and introduce a new generation to the wonderful world
of Ramona. As an added bonus, reading the books aloud lets
adults revisit Ramona’s world for themselves, again and again.
And isn’t that the best reason of all?
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REFERENCES
.
,
Benson, L. (1999). The hidden curriculum and the child's new discourse: Beverly Cleary's Ramona goes to
school. Children's Literature in Education 30 (1), pp 9-29
"Beverly Cleary", in Contemporary Authors Online. (A profile of the author's life and works). Retrieved from
http://infotrac.galegroup.com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/itw/infomark/107/721/7826980w16/p
url=rc1_CA_0_H1000018612&dyn=3!xrn_1_0_H1000018612?sw_aep=new67449
Chatton, B. (1995). Ramona and her neighbors: Why we love them. Horn Book Magazine,71 (3), p297
Cleary, B. (1955). Beezus and Ramona. Morrow.
Cleary, B. (1968). Ramona the Pest. Morrow.
Cleary, B. (1975). Ramona the Brave. Morrow.
Cleary, B. (1977). Ramona and Her Father. Morrow.
Cleary, B. (1979). Ramona and Her Mother. Morrow.
Cleary, B. (1981). Ramona Quimby, Age 8. Morrow.
Cleary, B. (1984). Ramona Forever. Morrow.
Cleary, B. (1999). Ramona’s World. Morrow.
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.
Cleary, B. (1988). A Girl From Yamhill. Harper Collins.
Cleary, B. (1995). My Own Two Feet. Avon Camelot.
,
Harper Collins. The world of Ramona: A teaching guide for Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books. Retrieved from
http://www.walden.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/RamonasWorld_TG_31.pdf
Ivey, G. (2003). 'The teacher makes it more explainable' and other reasons to read aloud in the
intermediate grades. Reading Teacher, 56(8), p812. 3p
Paul, P. (2011). The ageless appeal of Beverly Cleary. The New York Times.
Schwarz, B. (2011). My Ramona: Beverly Cleary’s body of work shows why topicality derails great
literature. The Atlantic, 125-127.
Shaw, Christen, (2013). Beverly Cleary. SPECTRUM Home & School Magazine. Retrieved from
http://www.incwell.com/Biographies/Cleary,Beverly.html
Smith, B. (2006). Third Floor Publishing - Literature Study - Beverly Cleary's Childhood Memories Make
Great Children's Stories. Retrieved from http://www.chfweb.com/smith/bcleary.html
Staino, R. (2010). Beverly Cleary Turns 94. School Library Journal, 56(4).
Vanderkam, L. (2010, July 30). Ramona and the Middle-Class Squeeze. Wall Street Journal - Eastern
Edition. p. W9.