And not bad for Beverly Cleary, the beloved author of the Ramona books, the Henry Huggins books, "The Mouse and the Motorcycle," and the Newbery Award-winning "Dear Mr. Henshaw." Cleary, who turns 100 on April 12, has created books that have remained outrageously alive and effortlessly entertaining
Henry Huggins was in the third grade. His hair looked like a scrubbing brush and most of his grown-up front teeth were in. He lived with his mother and father in a square white house on Klickitat Street.
In her introduction to a recent edition of "Henry Huggins," Judy Blume writes, "Beverly Cleary is the best. And ... I'm not exaggerating. There's no one else like her. She was my inspiration when I began to write. I'd go to the public library and come home with armloads of books. As I read them I'd