holy shit that is too good. "Sorry, Jessica, we only found 2 bouquets worth of wildflowers, so yours is going to have to be this Miller Light can wrapped in a plastic bag."

Because everyone at school already knows “fadatta-fadatta-fadatta/beepum-boopum-bah/ratta-datta-boom-shh/afa-deedee-bobo.”

I just boinged a friend’s curl the other day and made the ‘boinggggg’ sound like Ramona did! Also, BEEZUSJEEZUS

Sharing beloved books with the littles is one of the best things. Can I make a recommendation? 3 is the perfect age to start reading Shel Silverstein poems together. My four year old can listen to Sara Cynthia Silvia Stout and Peanut-Butter Sandwich over and over (and my two year old likes them too).

I always remember Ramona misunderstanding the teacher’s instruction “Sit here for the present”, and how disappointed she was when it turned out there was no present. “Yard ape”. The hard boiled egg that wasn’t hard boiled which she broke over her head in the cafeteria. All of that joy and heartbreak, mystery,…

I’ve said this in many many posts, but sharing the books I loved as a child is one of the things I most look forward to doing when I have children someday.

I adored the passage about Jean’s experience buying her ready-made dress (and getting shoes dyed to match). For some reason, I found all the details Cleary included about the Jarett family’s cost-cutting measures incredibly charming.

Ha ha ha ha ha - I never saw those covers! I read them in the early 70s. Cordless? When Julie has to stretch the phone cord all the way into the closet to tell Jane about Bitsy? Come ON, cover artists!

I used to re-read Fifteen, Jean and Johnny, and The Luckiest Girl when I couldn’t sleep at night. I found her descriptions of homemade dresses and hamburger dates incredibly soothing, and I fantasized about inhaling the scent of oranges through an open window in Shelly’s non-square bedroom. I was SIMILARLY confused by…

Yes! For YEARS I wished my last name started with a “Q” so that I could embellish it to look like a cat.

I had trouble articulating how I felt after reading this post—just, it’s lovely, and almost made me cry. Beverly Cleary’s work means so much to me.

I have certain images lodged in my brain—Ramona and her father drawing their feet, Henry’s dog getting locked in the bathroom, etc. I loved those books! I’m going to have to dig them out next time I’m at my parents’ house.

Judy Blume also treats children like adults. You’d be hard pressed to find a book written for kids today that have children obsessed with Hitler or hear mom crying in the bathroom after fighting with dad. This is why my daughter has read Starring Sally J Friedman as Herself repeatedly. No cutesy formulaic stories.

Dawnzer’s lee light

I think about the “the dawnzer’s lee light” scene every time I hear the national anthem.

Thank you for this lovely article. I stumbled upon “Henry and Beezus” in fifth grade, and didn’t stop reading Beverly Cleary until I had read every last book I could find. I read them over and over.

Oh man, I was a late bloomer but Jean and Johnny saved my life when I was in university. Funny how I could relate so much to a high-school story from the early 60s, but that shit is universal.

Beautiful, Kate. The Ramona books were at times hilarious, desperately sad, filled with enough sense of solitude to make Emily Dickinson cringe, infused with dinner table conversations as real and raw as a ribeye, and always, always, deeply and wantonly subversive. I was able to read early, and after a thousand rounds…

Anyone have random lines that still stick out to them? To this day when I see No Smoking signs I think of Ramona And Her Father, where she accidentally makes a sign saying “Nosmo King” and he teases her.

I’m so excited for my daughter to read Beverly Cleary and Roald Dahl and Judy Blume and and and (she’s turning 3 in May, is that too soon to start??).