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Cleary

As we approach Beverly Cleary's birthday....some thoughts....

*Mrs. Cleary won her Newbery Medal for "Dear Mr. Henshaw." It tackled serious subjects--divorce, an absentee parent--and it wasn't part of a series. These phenomena may have helped with the judges.

*Henry Huggins appeared first in 1950, and he made his final bow in the 1970s. By contrast, Ramona popped up in 1950, and she was still around, in new fiction, in 1999.

*Cleary gives major credit to her editor, who pushed for a book about Ramona, and who said, "Don't analyze your work. Just do your work."

More to follow.....
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