See Also:
Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero: The Dr. Seuss Story.
Life Lesson #42 – Just Do It!
We all have some special friends who really only live in books we read about them. Do any of these friends sound familiar? Ramona Quimby, Fudge, Henry Huggins, Ellen Tebbits, and Runaway Ralph? Well, if it had not been for a wonderful lady named Beverly Cleary, we wouldn’t have those great friends like Ramona and her sister Beezus.
When Beverly was just a young girl in school, she had a hard time learning to read, but after she worked at it very hard, she found that she loved reading, especially books that were fun. In fact, she loved books so much, she decided to be a writer when she grew up. She went to college to learn to be a librarian but she kept her dream about writing books. After she was married, her husband asked her one day why she didn’t just go ahead and write a book. She laughed and said, “Because I never have a sharpened pencil?!” Well, the very next day, Mr. Cleary came home with a brand new pencil sharpener so she could begin writing. First, she wrote about Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy. And she just kept on writing, mostly about the everyday things that children do.
Of all her characters, Beverly Cleary said that Ramona is the most like she was as a child. She wanted the children who read her books to find characters like themselves. Most of all she wanted her books to be fun and funny like the ones she enjoyed reading as a little girl. She has reached her goal of making children everywhere happy with her books. She has become a HERO.
– Jim Lord