Beverly Cleary has been writing children's books for nearly fifty years. She has thirty-eight books to her credit. At eighty-three years of age she has just released her latest book, Ramona's World. If you bring her name up to adults or childrenÉthey'll remember two particular characters, Ramona and Ralph. Mrs. Cleary has chosen to write in a few different genres, but her style in each is unmistakable. In many of her books she uses a similar point of view, tone, and plot. Beverly Cleary has received both awards and criticisms for her work, however, the fact that she has realized her dreams and achieved her goals is abundantly clear.
Beverly Cleary was born Beverly Bunn in McMinnville, Oregon in 1916. She lived on a farm in Yamhill until she was six years old. Her father worked the farm and gave Beverly a few hard, fast rules that she never broke during her explorations of the farm. Before marrying her father, Mabel Atlee Bunn had been a schoolmarm. Moving to the farm had been a drastic change for her, but Beverly never heard her mother complain. Her mother had many rules, especially for when they were in town. Beverly tried hard to follow them, but many just didn't make sense to her. Books were rare and precious in their rural community. Mrs. Bunn set out to change that by starting their first library, Beverly spent many hours there with her mother.
When Beverly was six, her family moved from the farm to Portland. Prices on farm goods had been falling, and her family couldn't meet their financial commitments. Beverly's first year of school didn't go very well. She was sick quite often and missed too much school. She fell behind in reading and was placed in the lowest reading group. She really didn't start reading well until second grade, and began reading outside of school after third grade. Teacher's encouraged her writing skills as early as junior high and her abilities in this area continued to grow in high school. Beverly thought that maybe someday she'd like to be a librarian. She spent many hours at the Portland library to read and escape her mother. The Bunn family was never financially well off. Her father worked in Bank security and her mother did magazine phone solicitation. The depression hit when Beverly was in high school. As her graduation approached, there was much concern over what Beverly was to do with herself. Fortunately, an aunt down in California invited Beverly to come to Chaffey Junior College for free. Her future was decided.
Beverly Bunn was excited to be out on her own away from her domineering mother. She spent two years at Chaffey and did very well in all her classes. From there, she went on to Cal Berkley. Classes were much more difficult, and she worked harder for lower grades. It was at Cal that Beverly met Clarence Cleary. She enjoyed his company, but mother did not approve! As an English major, she had to take the Comprehensive exam. The test was in two parts, the first of which she failed. Thankfully, she passed the second part and received the average of the two scores, a D! Beverly wasn't too pleased, but she was already accepted into the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington. After receiving her Librarianship diploma, she applied for jobs in Tacoma, Klamath Falls, and Yakima. She worked in Yakima for a year and then left to marry Clarence Cleary. Since her parents did not approve, they were married in Reno over a weekend. She did not break the news to her parents, instead they found out by reading it in the local paper.
Beverly Cleary moved to California to begin her life with Clarence. During their early years together, she worked in a bookstore and as an army librarian during World War II. After the war they moved back to the Berkley area. It was at this point that Beverly decided to realize her dream of becoming a writer of children's books. She wrote her first book, Henry Huggins in 1950. Her inspiration came from a group of "grubby little boys, nonreaders" who came from St. Joseph's school in Yakima. Their teacher had hoped to get them interested in reading something more exciting than their textbooks. Beverly discovered that there was not much in the library that interested them. Henry Huggins was her response to their question, "Where are the books about kids like us?"
Beverly Cleary has not stuck to just one genre. She started out writing many contemporary realistic fiction novels. Some of the most familiar are her five books with Henry Huggins as the main character and her eight books about Ramona Quimby. Out of the thirty-eight books she has written, about twenty-three of them could be classified as realistic fiction. Mrs. Cleary dove into fantasy with her books about Ralph. The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Runaway Ralph, and Ralph S. Mouse are all fantasy books where the main character is a mouse who has adventures on a toy motorcycle. During the course of my study of Beverly Cleary, I discovered that she has written seven picture books as well. In four of these books, the main characters are boy and girl twins. I found this interesting because she had boy and girl twins of her own. She also authored an ABC book and a motorcycle safety book entitled Lucky Chuck. Finally, she also wrote two autobiographical books. The first one, entitled A Girl from Yamhill, was about her childhood through to graduating high school. Her second one, My Own Two Feet, describes her college years, marriage, and work up until the publication of Henry Huggins.
Ramona Quimby and Ralph S. Mouse are two of Beverly Cleary's many book characters. Both Ramona and Ralph are written as very round characters. As a reader, you get acquainted with these characters through their actions, speech, opinions, and thoughts. While reading the Ramona books, the audience soon discovers many things about Ramona. She is a misunderstood tomboy who is full of spunk, likes school, exaggerates to make things interesting, and worries about whether or not her parents love her. Ralph is a mouse with many young male human characteristics. He enjoys the thrill of riding fast, the taste of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and longs to prove to his mom that he is responsible. These characters are both arguably dynamic. The Ramona stories are about growing up, and she tends to mature just a bit in each. Ralph learns how to be responsible in the first two books, and in the third he demonstrates his responsibility.
In many of Beverly Cleary's books, she uses a similar point of view, tone, and plot. Both her contemporary realistic fiction books and fantasy books are written using a limited omniscient point of view. The readers see through the eyes of one of the main characters in the story. This is true of all of the Ramona books, the Henry books, and the books about Ralph. The tone in Beverly Cleary's books is warm and friendly, with a touch of humor. Her books are not serious in nature. She does this on purpose, she doesn't want to "burden third- and fourth-graders with grim problems" . Lastly, she uses episodic plots in all of her realistic fiction and fantasy books. Each chapter is an episode with its own high point and resolution.
Not only are Beverly Cleary's uses of point of view, tone and plot similar, but the settings she uses, her style, and themes have related connections. Most of her settings are backdrop types. Her most famous is Klickitat Street. This setting is not really integral to the plot; however, this sentimentalized neighborhood does illustrate mood to the reader. Rebecca Lukens might describe Beverly Cleary's style as trite. The language that she uses has very little imagery or detailed description. Her style might also be termed conversational. This conversational style contributes to the friendly tone of her stories as well. Many of Mrs. Cleary's stories have a primary, implicit theme of growing up and accepting more responsibility. She encourages her readers about the challenges of growing up without being explicitly didactic.
Beverly Cleary has received both awards and criticisms for her work. She received the Newbery Medal for Dear Mr. Henshaw, as well as Newbery Honor Medals for Ramona and Her Father and The Mouse and the Motorcycle. She has also received the Golden Kite Award and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award. Numerous states have given her awards based on the votes of children. If her name is mentioned to adults, they will more than likely remember a book or two that they read as children. Although she has had a long career and extensive readership, not all critics have supported her work. Some critics have put-down her literary style, while others have challenged her idealistic view of reality. The criticisms of her work are not unfounded, however, her goal has been to encourage children's' enjoyment of reading though humorous books about childhood. If she is measured by this goal, then she has exceeded any imagined expectations.
K. Vaver