Walking with Ramona: Exploring Beverly Cleary's Portland

by Laura O. Foster

Walking with Ramona explores the streets, schools, characters, and neighborhoods of author Beverly Cleary's Portland. With this newest and most unusual Portland guidebook, readers can walk the very sidewalks Beverly walked and climb the very school steps that Beverly climbed. You'll see the grocery parking lot where Ramona got stuck in the mud, the park lawn where Henry Huggins hunted nightcrawlers, and the real Portland street that became Klickitat Street, their fictional home. Beverly Cleary's Portland was much different than the Portlandia of today. Walking with Ramona brings to life what that 1920s and 1930s Portland was like for the “girl from Yamhill who went on to become an internationally beloved author. Characters like Ramona and Beezus, Henry and Ribsy, and Ellen and Austine come to life on this hour-long walking route through the Northeast Portland neighborhood where Beverly grew up.
An almost 3-mile walk or bike ride around Northeast Portland, plus other Oregon destinations.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Adventure, Childrens, Guidebook, Biography, Books About Books

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2009

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, I do realise that Laura O. Foster’s Walking with Ramona: Exploring Beverly Cleary's Portland is generally going to be focussing (and even from the book title itself) not so much on a detailed analysis of Beverly Cleary’s life and her oeuvre but more on interested travellers, on tourists visiting Portland, Oregon and its environs being given information and details on a number of Cleary inspired literary walks they might enjoy taking, which would certainly be interesting and useful if I were actually (sometime in the future) planning on travelling to Portland, but not so much if I am for the most part just looking for decent secondary information and resources on Beverly Cleary as an author.

But well, albeit that after noticing the book title (Walking with Ramona: Exploring Beverly Cleary's Portland), I was definitely and in fact already kind of expecting the above, indeed, I also was still thinking (and hoping) that Foster’s presented text would equally engage in a bit of literary analysis and interpretation of Cleary’s Portland-themed novels. And in my humble opinion, this never really is even remotely the case in Walking with Ramona: Exploring Beverly Cleary's Portland, as the rather small scale introduction to Beverly Cleary’s life and writing is both pretty basic and also pretty annoyingly frustrating. For while it is certainly true that Beverly Cleary’s Portland based novels focus quite a bit on her own childhood, to read Laura O. Foster in Walking with Ramona: Exploring Beverly Cleary's Portland basically totally equate in particular Ramona Quimby and her stories with her author’s, with Beverly Cleary’s life, it kind of makes me feel as though though the author, as though Laura O. Foster does not really think that Beverly Cleary has written truly original narratives, that all or at least most of her work is basically simply derivative, and this is most definitely rather majorly problematic to and for me.

And combined with the fact that ALL of the bibliographic materials included by Foster in Walking with Ramona: Exploring Beverly Cleary's Portland are about visiting Portland as a city and Oregon as a state and that there are really no true secondary sources for books about Beverly Cleary’s life and work to be found (and no, the list of Beverly Cleary’s Portland and Oregon novels does not in fact count here, as those are primary and not secondary works), for me, Walking with Ramona: Exploring Beverly Cleary's Portland has been both rather a huge disappointment and definitely not what I was either looking for or expecting.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sure to make you want to strap on a pair of coffee can stilts and take a stroll through the streets of Portland, this nostalgic little guide book is sweet and fun.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun! Portland is a great city (plus it is the home of Powell's, the epic bookstore) and this little travel gem just make it all the better. Jam packed with history and a guide to seeing the city through the eye of a young Beverly Cleary. If I were a teacher in the Portland area my field trip plans would be set!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

what an effing delight. i was a total ramona kid (& someone in high school wrote in my yearbook senior year that i reminded him of a grown-up ramona, which he said [& I agreed] was a good thing) - but i forgot (or never properly knew?) that beverly cleary was a portlander. happened upon this book, walked the route, & loved getting to know the town better, as well as her childhood and books. i’ve been fascinated + horrified thinking about the settlement of the u.s. - all the many things that created this situation: that i am familiar & feel at home on arrival in a place 3,000 miles from where i grew up, because i kind of grew up here too? & not because of reading ramona. it was so many things that created this (better & worse) & somehow the book is about these too: canoes bought from native americans for the last leg of the journey west & the food prices falling so low the farm couldn’t survive & the great depression & the local philanthropist who defended chinese immigrants & mail-order houses & buying a chevy for your best friend when you become a famous author while she’s a teacher & silent movie cinemas & streetcars & waterfalls + beaches reachable by trains… i didn’t expect this, but it happened.

[Wendy Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very easy to follow guide to neat walks in the Portland metro area. Since this was published by Metro, most of the walks are easily accessible via mass transit, which is a nice touch. There's a lot of variety in scenery and in the length and difficulty of the walks, so there's something for just about everything. Plus, most of the walks include some kind of interesting cultural or historical landmark!

[Mkb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the Ramona books and I have been to Portland so this was fine. If you don’t check those two boxes, then maybe this isn’t your book.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and informative (but very short) walking tour of the various places Beverly Cleary visited/lived and influenced her novels. It's been years since I read them but this book gave a little insight on what her life was like and where the stories took place. Definitely will bring a copy for reference when I make it to Portland.

[Lynn Kidd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book through the Goodreads giveaway. I have read every Beverly Cleary book out there as a child and again to my children as they were growing up. This book I feel should be renamed to Walking with Beverly Cleary. I truly believe that as I was reading this book I was seeing exactly where Beverly had been and what her life was like in Portland. This book gives the reader an idea of what it was like growing up in Portland with Beverly.

I'm only giving this book 3 stars for the fact that I felt it left a lot out that readers may have expected. Such as more information about Ramona and her friends that readers have come to love so much through the years. Other wise this is a good afternoon read kind of book.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just try to read this without immediately longing to re-read every Ramona Quimby book, STAT! One of my favorite tidbits of info was that Klickitat Street, a name I loved in the books, is actually named for a Pacific Northwest tribe nearby. Those are the things that are important to know. Also, I had no idea Beverly Cleary's dad was a farmer, and I like how when she was growing up, she was told to something practical, so she became a librarian (just like me). <3

This book needs to include a plane ticket to Portland.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a cute little book that shares many black and white photos that show Beverly Bunn’s childhood neighborhoods. (Beverly Bunn is the maiden name of beloved author Beverly Cleary.) This walking guide has potential to be a fantastic guide!! Some people may love this book, but I have never read a book that has been so poorly edited. Hopefully it can go through another publisher, to be proofread.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book caught my attention because anything having to do with Beverly Cleary I will read. A fun book to have if you are visiting or living in Portland. A visitors guide. Not really a read by itself. Would be fun to do the Ramona Walking Tour.

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s hard to miss this book if you’re walking through Powell’s Bookstore because it’s prominently displayed with other local/regional books in several rooms. Because I grew up in Portland and read a few Beverly Cleary books as a child, I couldn’t resist getting this little gem.
The bulk of the book is a fairly detailed description of a walking tour of Ramona’s and Beverly Cleary’s neighborhoods in Hollywood and Grant Park. I’m not a big enough fan of Cleary to make a special visit to the garden named in her honor, but there are some unique Portland-only places worth a visit that probably aren’t in any conventional travel guide— or common knowledge even to native Portlanders.
For anyone who wants to learn about Portland businesses, schools, buildings and streets, especially on the east side, during Beverly Cleary’s childhood and beyond, this is a great primer. Some fun take aways for me included the history of the Fred Meyer stores: I either forgot or never knew the first Fred Meyer store was in the Hollywood district and was the first one-stop shopping center in the nation. I also didn’t know there’s still a drugstore in The Hollywood district with a soda fountain. And learning about Sandy Boulevard’s history as a Native American pathway and Oregon Trail was eye popping.
This was a fast and worthwhile read that’s also a worthy reference for native Portlanders and travelers alike.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently I've begun to visit Portland since our youngest daughter moved there, and is now raising her family not far from where Beverly Cleary lived, near Klickitat Street. Because our visits are only a week or two, I've wanted to make every moment count. I've been to the new Hollywood Library in Portland, which is fantastic. There are so many other places I want to visit in Portland too, especially after reading about the many new as well as historic destinations Portland offers.

Your book also shares many anecdotes about Beverly Cleary's fascinating life. I appreciate the stories you shared about her childhood, friends, and parents. Thank you for writing such a fascinating and detailed account of Portland, including the walking tours which we'll do this summer. This is a fabulous book, just the opposite of the TV series Portlandia, thank goodness! I appreciate this treasure of a book.

[Elise Noorda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did some diving into Beverly Cleary for a recent trip to Portland, and this book was a little treasure.
Not only did it help give framework for a walk about Cleary, it gave me some wonderful Portland/Oregon history, which I loved. The neighborhood of Sears catalog homes, revamping of Portland's address system, and the Hollywood Theatre, were some favorites.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This does give you the ability to do your own Ramona tour and there is some good supplementary information.

The intro is a little too Portlandia-conscious, and the illustrations are (I am sure unintentionally) disturbing alterations of illustrations from the Ramona books.

I didn't love it, but it served its purpose.

[Danielle DuPuis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this little book, and plan on using it when I go and visit Portland (who knows when I’ll have the opportunity). I read every book written by Beverly Cleary growing up, with the exception of her autobiographies. I loved learning about the places in Cleary’s books. A fun read!

[Mary K. Moench · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent guide

Excellent guide that will take you through the Portland Ramona Quimby lives in!! Perfect companion as you walk along he same sidewalks that Beverly Cleary walked and wrote about.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked reading about the hikes I never went on when I grew up in Portland. Excited for a rain free day to experience some of these walks. I especially liked the historic background & details associated with the hikes. I like that the book is pocket size.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great if you're familiar with Beverly Cleary's oeuvre. I went on the walking tour and thoroughly enjoyed it. Later, I read the rest of the book and now I want to go back to Portland!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Geek out on Beverly Cleary and Grant Park/Hollywood factoids and history.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Walking this area is on my list of "musts" for my next Portland visit.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would be the perfect accompaniment to a trip to Portland!

[Barbpie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t wait to explore Ramona’s Portland!

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun quick read though explores the places in Portland where Beverly Cleary grew up and how they've changed since then.

[Michelle]

This would be fun to bring along on a trip to Portland.

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't say that everyone will like this one, but we travel to Oregon as often as we can so this was a fun read to learn more about both a city I love and an author I grew up reading.

[AS · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very heartfelt ode to Beverly Cleary and her characters, especially Ramona Quimby. I started some of the walks on my last trip to Portland, but want to do more : )

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easy quick read about a beloved author!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was not just helpful to walk in Beverly Clear and Ramona’s footsteps, it helped me film a literary travel blog and lead a literary walk meetup! I’m so glad I found this baboon at Powell’s!

[Nathan Albright · Rating 2 out of 5]

My feelings about this book are highly ambivalent.  Like many children, I read a fair amount of Beverly Cleary's novels when I was a child, even if I didn't realize at all that these novels were based in Portland or drawn in many cases from the life and observations of the author herself.  I happen to be a resident of the Portland area at present, and my relationship to the culture of this place is certainly very ambivalent as well, given my political distance from the general worldview of the place and my general hostility to the sort of moral corruption this book appears to endorse, albeit subtly so.  I even find myself ambivalent to the author's fondness for public transportation--this is a walking tour and walking is far from a straightforward pleasure for me [1].  In short, I found much in this book to celebrate, but also a great deal that I was not very fond of, and the feeling that the author and I were not of the same worldview at all despite our shared appreciation for good children's literature like that of Cleary.

This mercifully short book of just over 100 pages is divided into five chapters and three appendices as well as a subject index.  The author begins with a discussion of the characters of Beverly Cleary's novels and how it is that they form part of a shared universe as the characters grow (1).  The author then takes a look at the sights of the Portland where Cleary grew up in the 1920's and 1930's (2) before showing an example of a project in coffee can stilts that kids can do today to mimic the creativity and resourcefulness of depression era children.  After that there is a chapter that gives a detailed walking (or biking) tour of the Hollywood and Grant Park areas where Cleary spent so many years of her childhood (3).  After this comes a look at the checklist of places that Cleary and her characters were familiar with, which includes some rather pointed and occasionally inappropriate comments from the author (4) and some suggestions of various hipster places where the reader can eat, drink, and shop in the way that the author clearly enjoys doing (5).  The appendices of the book look at the Portland-based books of Cleary's career, how to get to the tour by bus, bike, foot, or MAX, and some selected reference works on Portland.

Ultimately, this was a book I wanted to like more than I did, and a great part of that comes from the assumptions of the author.  A driving tour of Cleary's Portland would be quite alright, but the author rather pointedly does not appear to like vehicles.  Mentioning the gay subculture of the downtown YMCA as if it was a bad thing for homosexuality to be illegal was not something I appreciated reading about either, and few of the stores or restaurants and their vegan influenced diet were particularly interesting to me as well.  There was certainly the material in here where someone could have made a compelling book about Cleary, but even where the author is not talking about immoral matters or things that simply are not of personal interest, her feminist perspective makes a lot of this book--including discussions of a man who tried to court Cleary during her teens--far more creepy and cringy than any book about good literature ought to be.  This is a case where the biases of the author make a book far less pleasant to read than it would be if it focused more on its subject and gave less room for the author's unpleasant political and moral worldviews.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...