Happy Birthday Beverly Cleary!

Today is Beverly Cleary's 95th Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Cleary and thank you for the joy you brought me (in your 50s) and my children (in your 80s) and a lifetime of helping children love to read and laugh.

My favorite Beverly Cleary book (though not necessarily her most well-known) is Ellen Tebbits.  Ellen's misadventures include having to wear long underwear under her ballet leotard and her inability to control a difficult horse (albeit not both at the same time). Trust me, it's funny. Ellen's nemesis Otis and his spurs are quite humorous, too.

Mrs. Cleary's other works include the Henry series and the Ramona books (made into a recent movie which my daughter and I disparage.  After all, who could do justice to Mrs. Cleary's writing? Though, the handsome actor John Corbett was, no doubt, awesome casting.) 

We listened to Mrs. Cleary's Ralph S. Mouse and The Mouse and the Motorcycle on audiotape during long car trips when my children were younger.  We loved them both. 

Enjoy your day, Mrs. Cleary.  My daughter hopes you got the fan letter she wrote you when she was in third grade - if not, consider yourself appreciated by our family and countless others.

National Library Week, April 10th - 16th

"When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does."

~ Kathleen Kelly's character in You've Got Mail 

As long as I can remember I've loved books.  In the third grade I read Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory eight times and a couple years in a row I won the grade school award for most books read.

So, instilling a love of reading in my children was/is important to me. When my children were younger, and especially in the summer, we made a weekly trip to our public library to browse and check out library books.  Sadly, with an excess of online resources, Kindles and a Barnes and Noble on every corner, we're far less likely to visit the library these days.

But, we'll always have these special reminders of our weekly treks to the library:

I bought simple canvas bags at Michael's Arts and Craft and gave my children paint pens to decorate them.  We took zip ties and a hole punch and attached their library cards to the bag handle. Their precious handwriting (on both the bags and library cards) is so special. We hung these on our coat rack where they couldn't be misplaced.

I'm happy to say that today both of my children are voracious readers and I know I have the public library (and I like to think, these little bags) to thank for that.