From: cwilson2 at kent.edu <cwilson2>
Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 22:16:08 -0400

In response to the person who did not particularly love the Cleary Klickitat Street books, I hope you're not getting flamed. I love everything by Beverly Cleary now, but I was too serious as a child to like Ramona or Henry H. I refused to read the Ramona books because I looked into one and saw that someone was called Beezus; that seemed so silly to me that I wanted nothing to do with the series. I wanted to read Cleary because I loved Ellen Tebbits so much and still remember the fun of discovering her with my mother who loved her also. I didn't like
"childish" things when I was a child and would have thought Ramona was a brat. I didn't read the Henry Huggins books because he was, first of all a boy ("yuck, phooey, boring," I thought) and secondly because there was a really stupid, corny, hillbilly singer who had his own show on the local t.v. station (the only one we could get with "rabbit ears,") named Henry or "Hank" Huggins. Odd things can affect judgement.
    When I read the Ramona books with my own daughters thirty years later, I loved them immediately and wondered why Ramona's parents were so much smarter about raising children than I was.
    What I really like from Beverly Cleary, however, is Dear Mr. Henshaw and Strider. Those are some of the most insightful books I know of on that subject, and some of the best written.
    Just my opinion, Cassie Wilson
Received on Tue 08 Aug 2000 09:16:08 PM CDT