I wish I could tell you when I met Henry, Beezus, and Ramona, but it’s been 30+ years and a child’s early life is full of firsts, too many to hold on to. I do know that it was Ribsy that I found first, a novel with a skinny looking dog on the cover. The story was of that skinny dog getting lost from his boy Henry and then trying to find his way back home. As a boy who loved dogs — who almost always had one, and who pined for one when he didn’t — I devoured the book and was only happy to read more stories about Henry and Ribsy from the library, and when I ran out of Henry stories I moved on to the girls — to that of Beezus, Henry’s friend, and of her kid sister Ramona. I loved these books, constantly re-reading them and remembering odd little details from them decades later — like Henry carrying a box of kittens, of Ramona staring at a clock and trying to figure out the time. They sometimes inspired or informed my own adventures: how many of my attempts to build a fort in the yard (including the one involving post-hole diggers and ending in my finding the water main and..um, “mass irrigating” two lots) were based on Henry and the Clubhouse? For a while I even declared Beverly Cleary my favorite author.

Beezus and Ramona is the original book in this meta-series, I think, introducing us to Beatrice (“Beezus”) and her holy terror of a sister, Ramona. As a boy I would have preferred Henry among the three characters, but it’s Ramona I remember best as an adult. She’s such a chaos-machine that she makes for great fun reading, though I’d pity her parents (and the neighbors) if I knew her in real life. Beezus and Ramona‘s main story is about Beezus about to have her birthday, but Ramona’s creativity and spontaneity cause…erm, challenges, destroying several cakes and invoking a teeny tiny parade of three and four year olds who Beezus is compelled to entertain. I couldn’t have asked for a more memorable return to the series.

In Henry and the Paper Route, we find young Henry pining for a job of his own — not for money, but because it’s a responsibility, and he wants nothing more than taking on something that proves he’s grown up and responsible. When he learns that there’s a spot opening, he hastens to apply — but doesn’t count on running into a litter of the cutest little kittens on the way, kittens that he just has to take care of. He can put them in his pockets and the newspaperman won’t even notice them, right? … well, read and find out. At any rate, Henry has stiff competition for the job from a new arrival — a boy so brilliant he’s creating a robot. But then there’s Ramona, the little anarchic wildcard, and hilarity and exasperation both ensue.

Ramona and her Father, the last in this revisit set, proved to be more serious. It’s later in the series, and Ramona is a slightly less manic kid, closer to ten than four: she’s old enough to be seriously bothered by her father’s being laid off, especially when she learns in class that smoking is bad for you and she sees him doing it a lot. To make matters worse, she’s a sheep in the school play, and her mother (who is now working to provide some income while Mr. Quimby is searching) can’t make a good costume, so she has to settle for an embarrassing sort-of-sheep.

And lastly, in Henry and Beezus we have an earlier story in which Henry also helps with a paper route, but he’s younger still and is tied up pining for his own bicycle. He knows the very one he wants, but it’s $50! Scooter has offered to let Henry take his route for a weekend, which will get him a little money for the bike fund, but faithful pooch Ribsy knows how to fetch so well, that whenever Henry throws a paper out — well, Ribsy brings it right back. In addition to de-training Ribsy to fetch, Henry is also trying to sell hundreds of gumballs he found in an empty lot (….nothing sketchy about that, nope…..) and looking for a beater bike in the meantime. Beezus helps him out at an auction, but lands him a girl’s bike. No boy can be seen cycling without a crossbar!

While I wasn’t able to revisit much of this series (my library hasn’t held on to much Cleary, unfortunately), I enjoyed each of these thoroughly. The appeal of the books hasn’t diminished in the least.