Beverly Cleary

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Beverly Cleary
Born April 12, 1916 (1916-04-12) (age 92)
McMinnville, Oregon
Occupation author, novels and short stories
Genres Children's books, novels
Notable work(s) The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Sister of the Bride

Beverly Cleary (born April 12, 1916) is an American author from the state of Oregon. Educated at colleges in California and Washington, she worked as a librarian before writing children's books. Cleary has written over 30 books for young adults and children. Some of her best-known characters are Henry Huggins, Ribsy, Beatrice ("Beezus") Quimby, her sister Ramona, and Ralph S. Mouse. She won the Newbery Medal for her book Dear Mr. Henshaw in 1984.

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[edit] Biography

Beverly Cleary (born Beverly Atlee Bunn) was born on April 12, 1916, in McMinnville, Yamhill County, Oregon. When she was five years old, her family moved to Portland, Oregon, where she attended elementary and high school. 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. It was not until she was in third grade that she found enjoyment from books, when she started reading The Dutch Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins. 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.

In 1934, age 19, she moved to Ontario, California to attend Chaffey College, from which she earned an Associate of Arts diploma. She worked as a substitute librarian at the Ontario City Library. After graduating with a B.A in English in 1938 from the University of California at Berkeley, she studied at the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she earned a degree in librarianship in 1939.

Her first full-time job as a librarian was 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. In response, she wrote her first book, Henry Huggins, which was published in 1950. 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 1940 she married Clarence T. Cleary and they moved to Oakland, California. The Clearys became parents to a set of twins, Marianne Elisabeth and Malcolm James, in 1955. Clarence Cleary died in 2004. Beverly Cleary currently lives in Carmel, California.

She has also written two autobiographies, A Girl from Yamhill and My Own Two Feet.

Her books are available in 15 languages in over 20 countries.

[edit] Honors and legacies

Cleary has won many awards, including the 1984 Newbery Medal for her book Dear Mr. Henshaw and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1975. Cleary received the Library of Congress Living Legends award in the "Writers and Artists" category in April 2000 for her significant contributions to America's cultural heritage.

The Hollywood branch of the Multnomah County Library, near where she lived as a child, commissioned a map which is on their lobby wall of Henry Huggins' Klickitat Street neighborhood. Statues of her beloved characters Henry Huggins, the Huggins' dog, Ribsy, and Ramona Quimby can be found in Grant Park in Portland, Oregon.

In 2004, the University of Washington's Information School completed fundraising for the Beverly Cleary Endowed Chair for Children and Youth Services to honor her work and commitment to librarianship. In 2008, the school announced that she had been selected as the next recipient of the Universities Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus Award, the highest honor that the University of Washington can bestow on a graduate. Her son, Malcom, is scheduled to accept the award on her behalf.[1]

She also has a residential hall at the University of California, Berkeley named after her.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.ischool.washington.edu/events/headlines.aspx#Alumna_Beverly_Cleary_to_recei

[edit] External links