Beverly Cleary on turning 100: Kids today ‘don’t have the freedom’ I had by Nora Krug

Beverly Cleary in 2006. The beloved children’s author turns 100 on April 12. Although the nation will be celebrating, her plans for the day are decidedly low-key. (Copyright Christina Koci Hernandez/San Francisco Chronicle/Corbis)

Beverly Cleary doesn’t really want to talk about turning 100. “Go ahead and fuss,” she says of the big day, April 12. “Everyone else is.”

Across the country, people are delving into Cleary nostalgia, with celebrationsand new editions of her books with introductions by the likes of Amy Poehler and Judy Blume. Kids and adults are being asked to “Drop Everything and Read” to commemorate Cleary’s contribution to children’s literature.

But the beloved children’s author has something far more low-key in mind for herself: a celebratory slice of carrot cake, she says, “because I like it.”

Cleary is as feisty and direct as her famously spirited character Ramona Quimby — an observation that she hears often and doesn’t care for. “I thought like Ramona,” she says in a phone interview, “but I was a very well-
behaved little girl.” Read more...