Henshaw,” the touching story of a lonely boy who corresponds with a children’s book author, won the 1984 John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. So when I sat down to write, I found myself writing about the sort of children I had grown up with,” Cleary said in a 1993 Associated Press interview. “As a librarian, children were always asking for books about `kids like us.′ Well, there weren’t any books about kids like them. When I started writing I found that I was thinking more about my typing than what I was going to say, so I wrote it long hand,” she said in March 2016.Īlthough she put away her pen, Cleary re-released three of her most cherished books with three famous fans writing forewords for the new editions.Īctress Amy Poehler penned the front section of “Ramona Quimby, Age 8 ” author Kate DiCamillo wrote the opening for “The Mouse and the Motorcycle ” and author Judy Blume wrote the foreword for “Henry Huggins.”Ĭleary, a self-described “fuddy-duddy,” said there was a simple reason she began writing children’s books. Others included “Ramona the Pest” and “Ramona and Her Father.” In 1981, “Ramona and Her Mother” won the National Book Award.Ĭleary wasn’t writing recently because she said she felt “it’s important for writers to know when to quit.” In all, there were eight books on Ramona between “Beezus and Ramona” in 1955 and “Ramona’s World” in 1999. We played hopscotch and jump rope and I loved them and always had scraped knees.”

“At the age of Ramona, in those days, children played outside.

“I was a well-behaved little girl, not that I wanted to be,” she said. She kept appearing in every book,” she said in a March 2016 telephone interview from her California home.Ĭleary herself was an only child and said the character wasn’t a mirror. “All the children appeared to be only children so I tossed in a little sister and she didn’t go away. Ramona, perhaps her best-known character, made her debut in “Henry Huggins” with only a brief mention. Among the “Henry” titles were “Henry and Ribsy,” “Henry and the Paper Route” and “Henry and Beezus.”

Henry huggins ramona and beezus