But it didn't satisfy with the neat little bow that so many modern stories tend to serve up.ĭon't worry. This book was definitely meant to satisfy. Notice the use of sweet twice? This is because the sweet outweighed the bitter by a large margin. We were given a sweet-bitter-sweet resolution. Let me rephrase that before I ruin the name of one of the most beloved childrens' writers of all time.Ĭleary did something with The Luckiest Girl that very few writers of fiction for younger readers do today : She REFUSED to coddle the reader by giving them everything they wanted. Why don't I remember Beverly Cleary being such an a-hole with her writing? She also wrote two autobiographies, A Girl from Yamhill and My Own Two Feet.

Beverly Cleary lived in Carmel, California until her death in 2021 at the age of one-hundred and four. The Clearys became parents to a set of twins, Marianne Elisabeth and Malcolm James, in 1955. Cleary and they moved to Oakland, California. Beezus and Ramona, Cleary's first novel to feature the Quimby sisters as the central focus of the story, was published in 1955, although Beezus and Ramona made frequent appearances in the Henry Huggins series as supporting characters. 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. Beverly Cleary (ApMarch 25, 2021) was the author of over 30 books for young adults and children.

The Luckiest Girl by Beverly Cleary