Beverly Cleary is without question one of the greatest influences in my life.
And Ramona Quimby is one of my most favorite people.
When I was in second grade I was placed in a split class of second and third graders. My teacher was brand new, right out of college. She was blonde and beautiful and I was completely mesmerized by her. Her name was Kim Wells.
Miss Wells is still a third grade teacher for East Muskingum Schools. She is Mrs. Slack now. I often wonder if she reads any of the same books that she chose to read to us that first year that she taught. As usual, I can't think of a way to say, Miss Wells, you changed my whole life with the books that you chose to read aloud to me when I was seven years old. Because, come on, it sounds cuckoo.
But change my life she totally did. It is probably not too terribly surprising that I loved listening to teachers read a book aloud. Even as I got older and could have easily simply read the book myself, I preferred to be read to.
Miss Wells read me many books that I have adopted as among my favorites. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. How to Eat Fried Worms. Otis Spofford. And...Ramona the Pest.
Ramona is only surpassed by Anne Shirley in my world as my literary best friend. Ramona went through life with me getting messy and questioning authority and sticking burrs in her hair and cracking eggs on her head. Ramona was so accessible to me, and I have no idea why because I am Beezus made over, the good little girl sitting with her book and getting all of her homework done.
Reading the Ramona books with the girls has illuminated to me exactly how genius Beverly Cleary is. Ramona's family has it rough. They don't have a lot of money. Her dad is without a job for an entire book, and even when he manages to get a job, he doesn't especially love it. I related to Mrs. Quimby on our last run through so much-she is trying so hard to keep everything together, to raise a spirited girl, to keep Mr. Quimby from getting depressed, to run a house and have a job and sometimes forget to plug the crockpot in.
The Quimbys are real people from the 1970s and 1980s. Frankly, I don't have a lot of books that would meet that criteria. (And I do love 1970s and 1980s literature. So very much.)
Beverly Cleary will be talked about this week, as she turns 100 years old, as someone who writes children well. And oh yes, she so does. But she writes people well. Moms and dads and big sisters and ornery boys like Otis and mutts like Ribsy...
She is a genius. I am so blessed to have met her at the age of seven, so that I have been able to read her books over and over and over again. It is my pleasure and honor to introduce her characters to my girls. And if somehow you have never had the pleasure of meeting Ramona, or Henry, or Ribsy, or Ellen, or Otis...please seek them out.
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