Beverly Cleary, Ellen Tebbits (1951).
I like the way this paragraph sketches a season in so few words: days shorter, leaves deeper, nights chillier. I like, too, the reference to “downtown,” the semi-mysterious place where stores are, or were. And I like the way the passage presents time as both cyclical and linear, seasons coming around again, clothes outgrown.
Ellen Tebbits is our daughter Rachel’s favorite Beverly Cleary book. Having now I read it, I can understand why.
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Thursday, June 9, 2016
From Ellen Tebbits
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I'm not sure I ever read Ellen Tebbits. Maybe when I was about 12. Now I have to go and get it!
ReplyDeleteRachel says it’s also Beverly Cleary’s favorite. It hits every form of third-grade angst I can imagine.
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