In Our View: Happy 100th, Beverly Cleary’

The magical power of reading can be found in the immortality it bestows upon the most beloved of authors.

Such is the case for Beverly Cleary, who remains a popular children’s author more than six decades after the publication of her first book, “Henry Huggins.” Such is the case as we pause today to acknowledge Cleary on the occasion of her 100th birthday. In observance of Cleary, April 12 has been designated “Drop Everything and Read Day” — an effort urging families to set aside time and pick up a book.

And why not? As the American Academy of Pediatrics declared in a 2014 study, reading to and reading with children from an early age provides lifelong benefits and enhances future academic success. Few authors have had as profound an impact on that early childhood development as Cleary, whose books have sold an estimated 90 million copies, and that impact can be found in the numerous articles that have been written leading up to her milestone birthday. As The Washington Post wrote recently: “Cleary is as feisty and direct as her famously spirited character Ramona Quimby — an observation that she hears often and doesn’t care for. ‘I thought like Ramona,’ she says in a phone interview, ‘but I was a very well-behaved little girl.'”

For young readers who grew up in the Northwest — and particularly in Portland — Cleary holds a special place. Her stories often were set among the streets and parks of Northeast Portland where she grew up, especially Klickitat Street. Today, the neighborhood features Beverly Cleary School as part of Portland Public Schools, and nearby Grant Park has a Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden that features statues of some of her most beloved characters.

But Washington also can lay claim to part of Cleary’s legacy. She graduated from the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington, worked as a librarian in Yakima, and has received the highest alumni honor at UW. The university also has established the Beverly Cleary Endowed Chair for Children and Youth Services.

All of that — in addition to Cleary being honored with a National Medal of Art — originated when she was a librarian and saw children frustrated that they could not find books about kids like themselves. So she took to writing them.

Childhood has changed since the era depicted in Cleary’s books, and she told The Washington Post: “I think children today have a tough time, because they don’t have the freedom to run around as I did — and they have so many scheduled activities.” Yet the adventures she penned still resonate today, sparking and celebrating curiosity and imaginative play. In so doing, Cleary created characters that children can relate to, imbuing them with impishness and meddlesomeness. About Ramona Quimby, she said: “Things just didn’t work out the way she thought they should.” That remains part of the charm, and Cleary — who lives at a retirement center in Northern California — has secured a place alongside the likes of Dr. Seuss and Judy Blume and J.K. Rowling in making the world a little richer for young readers.

That kind of legacy is timeless, and it makes today an appropriate reminder for the importance of reading. Numerous studies have found that books are essential to brain development for young readers and adolescent readers alike, making April 12 — and every day — a perfect time to drop everything and read.