![]() Ramona Quimby, the most famous of all of Cleary's characters, was unforgettable. “Henry Huggins” was a hit upon first printing, but her readers wanted to hear more about the little girl who lived just up the street. There weren't any, so she sat down and wrote “Henry Huggins,” her first book about a regular little boy on Klickitat Street in Portland. By the 1940s she'd become a children's librarian in Portland, Ore., and she remembered boys in particular would ask her: "Where are the books about kids like us?" Cleary was still a young girl when she decided to become a children's book author. Her writing style - clear, direct, uncomplicated - mirrored the author's own trajectory. And I think children like to find themselves in books." And in my childhood, many years ago, children's books seemed to be about English children, or pioneer children. "I wanted to read about the sort of boys and girls that I knew in my neighborhood and in my school. ![]() That's what I wanted to read about when I was growing up," Cleary told NPR's Linda Wertheimer in 1999. ![]() "I think children want to read about normal, everyday kids. Cleary's simple idea - to write about the kids in her own neighborhood - ensured that her books have never gone out of print. ![]()
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