“Miss Binney, I want to know — how did Mike Mulligan go to the bathroom when he was digging the basement of the town hall?”
Miss Binney’s smile seemed to last longer than smiles usually last. Ramona glanced uneasily around and saw that others were waiting with interest for the answer. Everybody wanted to know how Mike Mulligan went to the bathroom.
- Beverly Cleary, RAMONA THE PEST
Filed under:
Cleary, Beverly,
Ramona series,
Wednesday Words 
Henry Huggins is the lesser known resident on Klickitat Street, but he’s got a lot to offer kids and their parents even sixty years later! You are probably more familiar or might remember better from your childhood Beezus and Ramona books, but these two lovable sisters show up in Henry Huggins, too! Plus who can resist Ribsy? Okay, some of you cat lovers might be able to resist him; but as we all know, I’m a dog lover for sure! 
Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary begins with Henry in the third grade and wishing that something exciting would happen to him. And that’s when he meets Ribsy, a lost and hungry dog, while eating an ice cream cone that the dog wants and eventually gets. Of course, somehow in this same chapter, Henry ends up in a police car, but you’ll have to find a copy of Henry Huggins and share it with your children or your class to remember why! Besides getting a stray dog in this book, Henry also brings home a bag full of guppies, throws his friend’s ball into an open window of a passing car, and has to be Timmy in the Christmas play!
So, what makes Henry Huggins a good read still today? Well, I appreciate Henry’s independence, creativity, and imagination. Won’t your students or your children be shocked at how much fun Henry can have without TV and a Nintendo DS? I also think Henry is funny. Kids need to laugh at books. This is a great chapter book for first through third graders to read who are ready to go beyond picture books. It’s good, wholesome fun! Plus, Henry gets into trouble, and many children will be able to empathize with him and discuss some of the things he could have done to stay out of trouble. These are timeless themes!
What’s your favorite Beverly Cleary book?
Don’t forget, there’s a contest going on until Friday, February 26 at 11:55 p.m. (CST). Click here for more information.
Two weeks ago, I talked about Judy Blume’s classic Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret and about the recent controversy over book covers. As you can see, today’s Timeless Thursday book Ramona Quimby, Age 8 also has a new, modern book cover, but that’s not what I’m here to blog about today.
Beverly Cleary has created some of the most endearing child characters ever, and my favorite is Ramona. Some more modern writers have written stories about strong,funny, independent girls such as Sara Pennypacker’s Clementine series or Susan Patron’s award-winning character, Lucky. I love these new girl characters, but my heart still belongs to Ramona. I am an only child, and as much as Beezus and Ramona might have driven each other crazy, I wanted my Beezus. I also remember learning to write cursive and being as proud as Ramona was when she wrote Ramona Quimby, Age 8 carefully in cursive. I could relate to Ramona, and that is why she will forever remain timeless in my heart.
Why would kids today want to read a book written by Beverly Cleary in 1981? Why wouldn’t they? The answer is as clear as day on the front cover of the latest version of Ramona Quimby, Age 8–”Life as a third grader is tough!” Don’t all elementary kids think they have it the toughest? Don’t they want to read something written by an author who truly understands them? Yes and yes!
So, although there are new, wonderful books out, don’t forget to share the old classics with your children and your students, too. If they haven’t heard of Ramona Quimby yet, give them this first book and let them decide for themselves.
What’s your favorite Beverly Cleary book?
I’m in the odd position of loving children without being very good with them. You know how there are those adults who really get how children think? I’m not one of them. But Beverly Cleary sure is.
(So is Emily, judging by her ability to articulate what she likes about SMASHED POTATOES. Plus, children always like Emily. I’m kind of like my dad: I tease kids in the one way I know how, and they either like it or they don’t, and if they don’t we’re both stuck.)
I was thinking about this lately because a few recent reads have had these little snatches of expressing something about childhood or adolescence. John Berger, observant as always, offers these small asides of descriptions in FROM A TO X, the adult novel I can’t stop talking about because I’m so proud I read one — like, “He already had a man’s voice but not the pace of a man’s voice.”
Or this one, which is now one of my favorite all-time descriptions of youth:
What the young know today they know more vividly and intensely and accurately than anyone else. They are experts of the parts they know.
There was a really good example in EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT BEING A GIRL I LEARNED FROM JUDY BLUME, too. Berta Platas kind of mentions in passing an actual event from her own childhood:
I even sighed over Randy, the guy in homeroom who had a crush on me and gave me my first Valentine ever. I read it so many times that I can still recite the little Hallmark poem inside, and the signature, “Your friend forever which is Randall.” Sigh.*
Who could make up a Valentine like that? I mean, I guess a really good writer could. But I sure couldn’t. I love kids.
* (And yes, the inclusion of the “Sigh.” is an example of what I was saying about this book, about being startled by what strikes me as the sloppiness of the writing. It’s just kind of… all like that.)
Posted in Blume, Judy, Cleary, Beverly, Why I love it
“your friend forever which is Randall”! HEE! I’ve probably mentioned this before, but one of my roommates is a 7th grade English & Social Studies teacher, and one of our favorite household activities is reading the assignments she brings home to grade – there’s such a perfect, clear, basic logic to how they think, even when they’re totally and completely incorrect.
I still remember in fourth grade, there was this kid in my class who had a crush on me and he wrote I love LA everywhere, insisting he meant the city – but I knew he meant me (those are my initials).
As long as when said children talk, they use contractions. Ann M. Martin? Definitely one of those authors who doesn’t get how kids really talk or think. (Well…all the “best” kids in her books are Shirley Temple clones!)
Lenore: HAHAHA. That is such a classic kid thing to do — publicly declaring love, and yet refusing to own it.
Actually, I did something similar at the camp I attended at age 11. For reasons I can’t recall, I instantly hated this girl in another bunk, which was called Brumby. One time I loudly said to a friend in her earshot, “There’s someone I really hate in Brumby.”
And then this girl had the gumption to declare, “I know who it is. It’s me.” Which for some reason made me backpedal to deny it, and after that we were best friends for the duration of camp.
Maybe after denying his crush on you enough times, he grew to really love the city of Los Angeles.
Sadako: C’mon, I mean, they say things like “Silly billy goo goo” and “hi-hi”! What more are you looking for?
Actually, I went through my own “hi-hi” phase in high school, and was ashamed of myself. No idea where that came from, besides some sort of years-delayed BSC mind control.
Yeah, I think he might just be the mayor of LA now
Okay I still say hi-hi. But I contract my speech, damnit.