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Author, Beverly Cleary, Dies at 104.

O S I C H

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Wow, Beverly is truly an icon! May she rest in perfect peace- her books touched so many children’s lives, including my bookworm self. Ramona Quimby was the quintessential character growing up :(
 

lfan

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Wow, 104. May she be at peace and bless her for all the joy she gave to us book-loving young ones.
 

Victoria Baker Harber

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Aww my birthday twin. I was hoping she’d at least make it to her next birthday.

may she rip,
those Ramona books were my bible as a little girl. She really understood the psyche of young girls.
I also loved “Dear MR. Henshaw”

rest well sweet lady
:-(

Happy Birthday!

It is shocking to hear.

I was in a special ed. reading/writing class as a child. Her books were some of the first novels I could read confidently on my own/very popular in the school library. There was always a long waiting list haha. They will always have a special place in my heart.
 

SweetGrass

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Her books provided an escape for me as a child and catapulted my love for literacy. Sleep Well Mrs. Cleary.
 

FloridaEvans

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Awwwwww man, Ramona Quimby Age 8 was my ish!

She was one of my favorites growing up, I so enjoyed reading her and Beverly Cleary.

I am reading Double Fudge by Judy Blume to my class but I think Ramona Quimby Age 8 is gonna be my next read aloud.
 
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nsquared

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Beezus and Ramona were literally me and my younger sister when we were little, except I was the one who had trouble with her name. RIP Ms. Cleary. Your books are the stories of my childhood.
 

Payton

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Ramona books made me love reading. They were my first chapter books.

LOL, I'm picturing Ramona running away after pulling Susan's boing-boing curls.
And I've always agreed that Chevrolet is a beautiful name.

You just brought a smile to my face with this. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that time Ramona emptied an entire tube of toothpaste in the bathroom sink just for the hell of it.
 

100K

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I don't know if I ever read her books as a child, but I read Dear Mr Henshaw a year or two ago and I liked it. RIP Beverly.
 

Payton

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Awwwwww man, Ramona Quimby Age 8 was my ish!

She was one of my favorites growing up, I so enjoyed reading her and Beverly Cleary.

I am reading Double Fudge by Beverly Cleary to my class but I think Ramona Quimby Age 8 is gonna be my next read aloud.

Ramona Quimby, Age 8 is hands down the best Ramona book.
 

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Her books were childhood Must Reads! What a blessing to live to be 104. I bet she had some interesting life stories. May she RIP
 

EllegantBizarre

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Dang, this is my childhood. She did live a long life and created characters we love. R.I.P
 

MrsSamCooke

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:cry:

Thanks for all the fond childhood memories I have of reading your wonderful books, Beverly. Rest in peace. :rose
 

fancygyal

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Children's author Beverly Cleary died Thursday in Carmel, Calif. She was 104 years old. Cleary was the creator of some of the most authentic characters in children's literature — Henry Huggins, Ralph S. Mouse and the irascible Ramona Quimby.

Generations of readers tore around the playground, learned to write in cursive, rebelled against tuna fish sandwiches, and acquired all the glorious scrapes and bruises of childhood right along with Ramona.

Cleary's simple idea — to write about the kids in her own neighborhood — ensured that her books have never gone out of print.

"I think children want to read about normal, everyday kids. That's what I wanted to read about when I was growing up," Cleary told NPR's Linda Wertheimer in 1999. "I wanted to read about the sort of boys and girls that I knew in my neighborhood and in my school. And in my childhood, many years ago, children's books seemed to be about English children, or pioneer children. And that wasn't what I wanted to read. And I think children like to find themselves in books."

Her writing style — clear, direct, uncomplicated — mirrored the author's own trajectory. Cleary was still a young girl when she decided to become a children's book author. By the 1940s she'd become a children's librarian in Portland, Ore., and she remembers boys in particular would ask her: "Where are the books about kids like us?"

There weren't any, so she sat down and wrote Henry Huggins, her first book about a regular little boy on Klickitat Street in Portland.Henry Huggins was a hit upon first printing, but her readers wanted to hear more about the little girl who lived just up the street.

Ramona Quimby, the most famous of all of Cleary's characters, was unforgettable. Mischievous, spunky and a hater of spelling, Ramona would be the first to tell you she's not a pest — no matter what anyone (especially her older sister Beezus) says. In the opening chapter of Ramona the Pest, Ramona responds to her big sister:


Continued in Spoiler
Cleary's memories are cinematically detailed. In her autobiography A Girl From Yamhill, she writes about clamping around on tin can stilts and yelling "pieface!" at the neighbor. She was an only child, who grew up in Portland during the Depression and still remembers when her father lost his job.

"I was embarrassed" she recalled. "I didn't know how to talk to my father. I know he felt so terrible at that time that I just — I guess I felt equally terrible. And I think adults sometimes don't think about how children are feeling about the adult problems."


Cleary used her crystal clear recall to capture the tribulations of young children exquisitely in her books. "I'm just lucky. I do have very clear memories of childhood," Cleary said. "I find that many people don't, but I'm just very fortunate."

Barbara Lalicki, who edited the 1999 Ramona book, Ramona's World, says Cleary steered the entire field of children's writing away from fantasy and historical fiction. She was a "pioneer," Lalicki says, in this "rooted-in-reality kind of book for children."

Cleary's books racked up awards, and were constantly reprinted and re-illustrated. Librarians kept shelves devoted entirely to Cleary's books, and teachers read the books aloud to their students.
For about 30 years — despite objections from publishers who wanted her focus on writing more books — Cleary answered all of her fan mail herself. "I learned a lot from children's letters," Cleary said. "Dear Mr. Henshawcame about because two different boys from different parts of the country asked me to write a book about a boy whose parents were divorced. And so I wrote Dear Mr. Henshaw, and it won the Newbery."

Longtime children's librarian Nancy Pearl remembers hearing "a wonderful, possibly apocryphal story" about Cleary going to speak to a class of second or third graders: "This little boy kept raising his hand, he had so much to ask her, and he said to her, 'Mrs. Cleary, I understand how you write your books. ... But where do you get your paper?' ... I think that's how involved kids get in those books."


Even with all the modern day distractions — videogames, music, movies and more — Cleary believed kids would keep on reading. "I don't think anything takes the place of reading," Cleary said in 2006. In one letter, a little girl said that reading in her room by herself was "like having a little television set in your head."

Decades after they were written, Cleary's books still ring true for children. "I think deep down inside children are all the same," she said. "They want two loving parents and they would prefer a house with a neighborhood they can play in. They want teachers that they can like. I don't think children have changed that much. It's the world that has changed."

And Beverly Cleary, with her honest, straight-talking heroes and heroines, certainly changed it for the better.

Source

It’s hard to live much longer, but I’m still sad.
I was just watching Ramona and Beezus
 

Felizy

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I loved Ramona growing up and just recently re-read all the books. RIP to such a talented woman.
 

CleoJo69

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Ramona is hands down my favorite literary character ever. Beverly Cleary is why I developed a love of reading. This one hurts.
Yes! Her & Judy Blume!

RIP Beverly Cleary.
 

Mangoz

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What an amazing woman, she had a great run. Rest in peace Mrs. Cleary.
 

Amame

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Never read her books, but I was familiar with her as a child.

I never knew she was this old. RIP.
 

Capt Burnham

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104 years is a d*mn good run. Loved her books when I was a little girl. Wow.

Good-bye Ms. Cleary. Rest well.
 

yung.bae

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The Ralph S Mouse series she wrote were my favs! I also read the Ramona/Beezus series. RIP to her.
 

Eminem

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RIP! i think we were just talking about her in the betty white thread earlier this year.
 

jeido

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May she R.I.P. I loved her books/characters and my children do too. :heart:
 

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Baby Ramona was annoying as hell! Thankful Beverly wrote the child of a full time working mother struggle for so many of us who could relate tho. May she rest in perfect peace
 

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