Children's authors

Today, I would like to share with you about two of my favorite authors from when I was younger.

One would be Beverly Cleary.  Beverly was born on April 12, 1916. And died on March 25, 2021. She had a long life. She was 104 when she passed away. When Beverly was a child, she was a troublemaker, and she didn’t like reading. As Beverly got older, she wondered why didn’t authors write books about kids like her. This was interesting to me because when I started with the idea for this blog, I wondered why a blog wasn’t there that talked about talk radio and Colorado radio. After College, Beverly became a librarian, and was forced to ask this question again. This is why she became an author. From an article in the New York times I read about her she has published over 40 books., She has also sold over 90 million copies and she won many awards. In 2000 the Library of Congress declared her a living legend. Many of her stories grew out of Beverly’s own life. One thing I didn’t know before was that Beverly was an only child. Beverly wrote in one of her memoirs that she felt restless, angry, rebellious, disloyal, and guilty even though her parents were told that they had a wonderful child. In my opinion Beverly’s books still do resonate with kids today. It said in the New York Times article that Beverly wrote that Ramona helped her process the world that she grew up in. In writing my blog, it has helped me process the radio world around me. I feel I am very fortunate that I have gotten to share my interviews through this blog. I feel that learning about these hosts has helped me process the radio world around me.

I first was introduced to Beverly when I was 5 or 6 years old. I listened to the book called Ellen Tebbits.  This story showed 2 girls who became best friends. This book showed me how important friendship is. I remember my mom and dad reading the Henry Huggins book series to me as well. Henry was a character that I could relate to.  Around this time, I remember one of my teachers Mrs. Lisa Hardert reading Dear Mr. Henshaw. This story was interesting to me. The book taught me that teachers care about the things that their students are going through As I have gotten older, I feel it would be great to write to some of my favorite authors. The name of the second article I read had a verry fitting title in my opinion. Beverly wrote about real life, and her readers loved her for it. I couldn’t have said it better myself. The question that one article asked was from the Newberry medal award to the national book award. Will Beverly Cleary’s books remain in the imagination of every child who met Ramona, Beezus, Henry Huggins, and his dog Ribsy, or any of her dear flawed characters? The answer for me was a resounding yes. When I used to read the books in Braille, or when I used to listen to them on tape, and situations came up I would think, I could relate to that situation, and it helped me in my childhood when these types of situations would come up in my life.

After reading all of those books, when I was 7, I started listening to the Ramona Quimby books. This series was about a girl named Ramona who had a wild imagination and would always get herself into some kind of a mess. I could tell that Ramona was a stubborn character. Some of the parts of those books were humorous. One of my favorite scenes was when Ramona wore her pajamas to school. That was a humorous and an embarrassing chapter. Beverly wanted her books to speak for themselves and resisted publicity.  She named the street for the Ramona books after a neighborhood that she grew up in. Beverly wrote in her second book about her life. In my opinion that is very true. People will remember her books for the intelligent wit. In her later books, Beverly said that Ramona was more aware of her growing up. This is something that I have learned as well.  The way I heard about Beverly’s death was from a radio host Richard Mckan who hosts a home improvement talk radio show on WRVA radio. He talked about how he used to read her books and enjoyed them. This brought back many fun memories for me. Thanks to Beverly for her imaginative, and creative books, and imagination.

Patricia Reilly Giff. Patricia was born on April 26, 1935. And passed away on June 22, 2022. She had a long life.  She grew up in Brooklyn New York. One of the colleges that she attended was Hofstra University. This is where she got one of her degrees. Giff resided in Trumbull, Connecticut. Other authors that wrote similar books to hers were Elise Broach and Tonny Abbot. Giff was married to Jim and had 2 children Alice and William.  She was a teacher before coming an author, and her first books came through her teaching experiences. Her first series of books were the Polk Street School series. Her characters in this series represented some of the children in her classes when she was a teacher. My favorite character was Dawn Bosco. Dawn was very much like me because she really enjoyed mysteries. Dawn wanted to be a detective when she grew up, and she started by solving mysteries in school.   My favorite book featuring Dawn was one where Dawn went to camp and solved a mystery there. Back then the name Dawn became one of my favorite names.  When I would hear the name Dawn it always made me think of the character Dawn Bosco from the Patricia Reilly Giff books.  Patricia also wrote the book Pictures of Hollis Woods. This was about a girl in Foster care. I remember reading this in Mrs. Campbell’s class, and the book brought out many emotions in me. Patricia won a Newberry award for that book.

Patricia’s children William and Alice honored her this way. This was taken from an obituary I read about her. "Our mom was a warm, loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. A mentor to a generation of writers, she inspired everyone with her humor, positivity and friendship. She made everyone feel special." When I read her books, I found that to be true. I will always remember her characters, and how they would forgive themselves in the books when they couldn’t forgive themselves personally.

In my opinion Patricia and Beverly Cleary were two fantastic authors who wrote books that kids, and adults could relate to. When I started my writing of stories, I think of these 2 authors and try to write stories that people of all ages can relate to.

Thanks for tuning in.