The Literary Impact of Beverly Cleary
Beverly Cleary is not just a writer of beloved kids and teen books but a major influence on children’s literature in general. From her first novel, Henry Huggins, to her last, Ramona’s World, Cleary built emotionally immersive series that still resonate with children today. Even at her death at the age of 104 in 2021, Cleary was still important to the world of children’s literature, and her impact continues to be felt far and wide.
Before the Work
At the age of six, Beverly Bunn moved with her family to Portland, Oregon. She found the adjustment difficult and also struggled with reading. She complained that books about regular people were too simple. However, when she read The Dutch Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins, it became the book that ignited her love of reading.
Though a teacher suggested to her as early as seventh grade that she should be a writer, she initially chose to pursue a more stable career as a librarian. She ended up as a school librarian in Yakima, Washington. She then married Clarence Cleary in 1940 and had twins. Ten years later, in 1950, she published her first book, Henry Huggins, and the rest is history.
Cleary’s Undeniable Characters
Henry Huggins’ friends on Klickitat Street, Ramona and Beezus, got their own series of novels as well. The majority of Cleary’s writing took place in the Grant Park neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, where she lived with her family.
Cleary took children and their troubles seriously, especially when it came to a young, boisterous girl like Ramona Quimby. Though her actions as a young girl were impulsive and even a little bit selfish, Cleary always gave a reason behind Ramona’s radically exploratory behavior.
In Rachel Vorona Cote’s loving tribute to Ramona’s brashness in Literary Hub, she notes that class and defying restrictive gender roles were important factors in Ramona’s character development: “Ramona, whose family lives in the working-class Pacific Northwest, does not eschew gender and behavioral norms out of calculated defiance, but rather out of disbelief that metrics of femininity and propriety could matter in the grand scheme of things.”
The brash young girls of books, movies, and television all share DNA with Ramona Quimby. Cote notes Arya Stark from Game of Thrones as a kindred spirit. I would add Ella from Ella Enchanted, Usagi from Sailor Moon, and Lyra from The Day You Begin as other girls in this canon.
Cleary presented lower middle-class families who didn’t have unlimited resources. In one book, Ramona longs for red galoshes like the other girls have, but her parents can’t afford them. In another, Henry has to get his bike from a second-hand auction. Despite these wishes, characters like Ramona, Beezus, and Henry are still happy kids who pursue their passionate imaginations. Cleary won multiple awards for her work, including the National Book Award for Ramona and Her Mother and the status of Library of Congress Living Legend.
Drop Everything And Read
April 12th is both Beverly Cleary’s birthday and D.E.A.R. Day, which stands for “drop everything and read.” D.E.A.R. was something Ramona and her classmates had to do in Ramona Quimby, Age 8. HarperCollins, Cleary’s publisher, made it a national holiday in collaboration with the National Education Association in 2006. Though D.E.A.R. was a regular activity in schools and classrooms way before the establishment of the national holiday, much of that is likely thanks to Cleary’s influence.
Love From Portland
The city of Portland is happy to demonstrate affection for Cleary. After a trip to Powell’s Books, you can walk over to Grant Park and sit amongst her characters in the Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden. Ramona, Henry Huggins, and Rigsby (Henry’s dog) populate the space. Each has a fountain–we know Ramona herself would run through the fountain by her statue.
The Hollywood Library of the Multnomah County Library has a map of Cleary book locations in their children’s section. Her books are set in this neighborhood so you can find the real Klickitat Street as well.
The Future of Beverly Cleary
After the amazing adaptation of Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, I’m hopeful that Kelly Fremon Craig or another aspiring director will take on the small family stories that Cleary told in her books. I do mean a period-accurate adaptation as opposed to a modernized version, which is what the past adaptation attempt for Ramona and Beezus was. Cleary always wanted to display the emotional depth of young life, especially in lower-middle-class families. Though her stories resonate past their original setting, the specificity of her work, down to the streets of Grant Park in Oregon, was always compelling.
Cleary is still a common author for teachers to use in the classroom because of the accessible nature of her stories. The literary impact of Beverly Cleary is in her choice to write about her real-life experiences and what she noticed around her. She’s a great author to teach children that their true lives are important and worthy of sharing with the world.
Want more reflections on the impact of Beverly Cleary and her beloved Ramona? Dive into this piece about the enduring nature of Ramona Quimby, this piece about why you should revisit the Ramona books as an adult, and this look at 100 awesome things about Beverly Cleary, written in honor of her 100th birthday.
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This week, we’re highlighting a post that celebrates the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby! Revisit F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic (and emblem of assigned reading) and get a crash course on the book’s history, including challenges encountered by its readers and adapters. Read on for an excerpt and become an All Access member to unlock the full post.
January 16, 2025, marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. The New York Public Library celebrated with a party, following a special performance of the Broadway musical adaptation of the novel. Simon and Schuster recently released a new audiobook with an introduction by Jesmyn Ward.
The novel’s theme of reinventing oneself is timeless. The ideas of living a lie by reinventing yourself and wealth making people callous are equally resonant today. How did this novel become so influential, especially on other American novels, and a fixture on high school syllabi? Was it always a bestseller? What aspects of Gatsby hold up, and which ones have aged terribly?
Fitzgerald’s original title for The Great Gatsby was Trimalchio in West Egg. I think the publisher was right to change it. Trimalchio is a character from the ancient Roman work The Satyricon. Combined with the fictional West Egg neighborhood, this reference is cryptic. Gatsby is now an icon in his own right. He doesn’t need a classical allusion for us to notice the theme of excessive wealth.
In a 2014 NPR interview, Maureen Corrigan, the author of So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures, explained how Gatsby became popular. Initial reception was mixed, ranging from the headline “Fitzgerald’s Latest a Dud,” to Modernist poets like T. S. Eliot saying they loved it. When Fitzgerald died in 1940, Gatsby was unpopular (but not out of print). A few years later, it was republished for US service members in World War II, and 123,000 copies were given to members of the military through the Armed Services Editions.
After World War II, Gatsby was no longer an obscure book with mixed reviews. It was considered a classic and became a staple of countless high school syllabi. Constance Grady wrote that Gatsby was ideal for many 20th and early 21st-century English teachers’ emphasis on New Criticism. It’s a great choice for close readings of short passages and analyzing symbolism. However, historical context is also crucial and should never be downplayed, especially in terms of bias.
The Great Gatsby possibly condemns white supremacist theories but uses racist language elsewhere. Tom Buchanan reads white supremacist books and goes on racist rants. Daisy mocks him for this. It’s easy to read this as condemning Tom’s overall bigotry. However, Fitzgerald also expressed racist and antisemitic views in real life.
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