Beverly Cleary Revisited

We had a girl's week this week while the boys were at scout camp. This was actually the second week this summer that the boys have been gone and it has been just us girls. One of the things that they wanted to do was go see the new movie Ramona and Beezus. There are a few references in it to Portland and it reminded me of something that has been on my list of things to do. Our elementary school used to do a field trip with the 3rd graders to the northeast Portland neighborhood where Beverly Cleary grew up. They took a little walking tour of her neighborhood and went to Grant Park where they now have the Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden. I've been wanting to go there and with the movie fresh in their minds I thought the girls would appreciate it more.

There are three sculptures at the park of characters from her books; Ramona, Henry and Ribsy. Ramona is looking dashing in her rain boots and raincoat with her hair flying.

In the summertime they turn on the water and it becomes a fountain for kids to run through and get wet.

There are plaques around the fountain engraved with the names of all of her books that are set in Portland.

I remember reading Beverly Cleary books as a kid and it was fun to see these timeless characters brought to life. The surrounding neighborhood is filled with places named in the books, like Klickitat Street where Ramona and Beezus live and Westminster Church where Ramona plays a sheep in the Christmas play. We did not have time to tour the neighborhood like I planned but it was fun to visit the park and drive by the house that Beverly Cleary lived in as a child.

I don't know if the girls will be inspired now to read the books but we did start reading Ramona the Brave which has quite a few scenes from the movie. There are plenty more where that came from and it might just temporarily solve the most difficult question known to man.
"What can I read?"