Just like Beverly

Here in the GPL Children's Department, we might be just a teeeeeeeeeeensy bit obsessed with our Ramona books.

So you can imagine our excitement when this brand new biography of Beverly Cleary hit our shelves this afternoon:

Just Like Beverly
by Vicki Conrad; illustrated by David Hohn
Seattle: Little Bigfoot, 2019.

Just Like Beverly is a picture book biography (otherwise known as the BEST kind of biography) of Beverly Cleary, children's librarian and author of the Ramona Quimby series, along with many other well-loved children's books like The Mouse and the Motorcycle and the Newbery Award-winning Dear Mr. Henshaw.

You might think that someone who grew up to write books for kids would have been an avid reader as a child... but actually, Beverly Cleary was so slow to read that she almost flunked first grade! The books her teachers handed her were boring and serious. Weren't there any books about kids like Beverly and her friends, kids who were silly and liked to have adventures?

Turns out that Beverly would have to write them herself. But first, she had to start small... with a prizewinning fourth-grade essay on the Oregon beaver!

Want to find out how our hero went from winning that $2.00 essay prize to receiving the Library of Congress' Living Legend award some 70 years later? You'll want to give this fabulous new bio a try.