Tag Archives: Beverly Cleary

CHILDREN’S SERIES: KICKING OFF A LIFETIME OF READING

Late Last Night Books

Last month I reflected on on how Beverly Clearly‘s death brought back cherished memories of childhood reading. Most especially, it reminded me of the many children’s series that kicked off a lifetime of reading for me: Cleary, Carolyn Haywood, Madeline L’Engel, Sydney Taylor, and Noel Streatfeild among them.

I asked if others had similar memories, especially about series I may have forgotten.

Nancy Drew and Judy Blume Books

I was surprised to get so few responses. Perhaps I had done a better job than I thought remember. Perhaps I was a broader reader than I remembered. But there were a few obvious series I had embarrassingly overlooked:

How could I have forgotten?

BEVERLY CLEARY AND A LIFETIME OF READING

Late Last Night Books

The death of Beverly Clearly last month immediately brought me back to the Evanston Public Library cerca 1966. I saw my 8-year-old self scouring the shelves for every book I could find about Ramona, Ribsy, or Henry Huggins. I limited myself to 5 books per check-out. But I loved that I could come back for more.

My heart beat fast every time I returned to the library for another fix. It beat even faster when I carried my cache home and dove into the stories. My goal was to read Cleary’s entire oeuvre.

A Serie-ous Habit

I was only busy clearing out the Cleary collection because I had read my way through every one of Carolyn Haywood‘s series.

That habit had started the day I discovered Betsy’s Little Star on the shelves of the Washington School library.