By Observing the "Minutae of Life," Cleary Created the Universal Human Experience.

 Elisabth Egan, "By Observing th "Minutae of Life," Cleary Created the Universal Human Experience" New York Times,  March 28, 2021, p 20.

When [Judy] Blume's children were young she'd come home from the library with armloads of books "most of them went in the 'I don't want to write books like these, they bore me' pile," she recalled. "Then I came to Beverly Cleary and I fell off the sofa, I was laughing so hard.  I thought, oh my God, I want to write books like this."

COMMENT

 It's not a surprise to learn that Judy Blume was inspired by Beverly Cleary. I sometimes even confuse which author wrote which books.  For a children's author, the juvenile collection offers an opportunity for research into what other authors are writing.  The sad truth is, there are a lot of children's books that are poorly written, overly preachy or just plain dull.  Thank goodness for the influence of Clearly and Blume!