Beverly Cleary's birthday was yesterday, so we had some fun learning about her. I was kind of surprised to learn that she's still alive - she was 96 yesterday. We watched two interviews with her and Sunny decided she wanted to write a letter to her. She dictated while I wrote and she signed her name herself. Here are the links.
Audio interview with video of illustrations from her books (18 minutes long)
http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/cleary/#dear
Video interview (15 minutes long)
http://www.beverlycleary.com/about.aspx
http://dropeverythingandread.com/index.html
We also have a short biography about her from the library - Beverly Cleary, She Makes Reading Fun by Patricia Stone Martin. The interviews were much more interesting, of course. It's always better to see and hear the person you're learning about than just reading a few paragraphs about them.
Sunny's letter to Beverly Cleary:
Dear Mrs. Cleary,
I like your Beezus and Ramona books. We didn't get Ramona Quimby Age 8 from the library. We are going to look for it this afternoon.
I like it when Ramona throws her shoe at a big brown dog and then makes a slipper by herself. I like it because Ramona is so brave. It's so funny when Ramona bakes her doll Bendix with Beezus's second birthday cake. I laughed in my head when I read that.
Happy birthday! From one of your fans - Love, Sunny (age 5)
She insisted on licking the envelope and putting the stamp on it, and is getting very irate that SHE gets to put it in the mailbox instead of just giving it to Dad to mail when he goes to work. And FYI, we mailed the letter to the HarperCollins publisher in New York.
It's fun to introduce my kids to books that I enjoyed as a kid. The Ramona books really are timeless, and show that kids, no matter what generation, are at heart pretty much the same. They just want to be loved and cared for, feel like someone understands them and is on their side, and have time to play and explore. It's not complicated.
2 comments:
You know I've never read a Beverly Cleary book -- of course, I have heard about her since childhood, but it is strange how little fiction I read even at that age. I always gravitated toward non-fiction. But I like getting ideas about books for Addison as she grows up!
I enjoyed her as a child. We have a few in our collection. We actually just got some of her books today at the used book sale at Bowmar. Thought of you.
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