Children's Author Beverly Cleary童書作家貝弗利·克利里

In March 2021， the much-loved children’s author Beverly Cleary passed awayat age 104. Ms. Cleary’s writing changed the world of children’s books by showingthat stories about the lives of ordinary kids could be interesting， funny， and popular.

2021 年3 月，備受喜愛的兒童作家貝弗利·克利里去世，享年104 歲。克利里女士的作品通過展現(xiàn)普通兒童生活的故事也可以是有趣、好玩和受歡迎的而改變了童書的世界。

Beverly Cleary was the best-selling and award-winning"author of dozens of books for children， including Ramona the pest。The Mouse and the Motorcycle，Henry Huggins，and Dear Mr.Henshaw.

貝弗利·克利里是暢銷書作家和獲獎(jiǎng)作家，她為兒童寫了幾十本書，包括《害蟲雷蒙娜》《老鼠和摩托車》《亨利·哈金斯》和《親愛的亨肖先生》。

Ms. Cleary was born in 1916. As a child， she had troublelearning to read. Even after she learned how to read， she stillfound many books boring. She felt like the people she wasreading about didn’t have much to do with her and her life.She wanted to read funny books about children like herself.

克利里女士出生于1916 年。小時(shí)候，她在學(xué)習(xí)閱讀方面有困難。即使在她學(xué)會(huì)了閱讀之后，她仍然覺得很多書很無聊。她覺得她讀到的那些人與她和她的生活沒有多大關(guān)系。她想讀一些關(guān)于像她一樣的孩子的有趣的書。

When she grew up， Ms. Cleary became a librarian. One day in the library， a boyasked her， “Where are the books about kids like us？”She realized there weren’tmany books about ordinary1 kids. So she set out to write books for children.

長(zhǎng)大后，克利里成為了圖書管理員。有一天，在圖書館里，一個(gè)男孩問她“： 關(guān)于我們這種孩子的書在哪里？”她意識(shí)到關(guān)于普通孩子的書很少。于是，她開始寫童書。

Ms. Cleary’s first book， Henry Huggines， came out in1950. It told the story of a boy and the stray dog that hetakes in. Henry Huggins was an ordinary third-grader whosehair looked “l(fā)ike a scrubbing2 brush”. This book， with itsfunny， lovable characters， was a hit.

克利里女士的第一本書《亨利·哈金斯》于1950 年出版。它講述了一個(gè)男孩和他收養(yǎng)的流浪狗的故事。亨利·哈金斯是一個(gè)普通的三年級(jí)學(xué)生，他的頭發(fā)看起來“像一把刷子”。這本書因其有趣可愛的人物大受歡迎。

Ramona the Pest became Ms. Cleary’s best known book.Ramona is curious3 and stubborn4， and is always getting intotrouble.

《害蟲雷蒙娜》成為了克利里女士最著名的一本書。雷蒙娜既好奇又固執(zhí)，總是惹麻煩。

When Ramona gets in trouble， it’s often funny， but it’salso something most kids can understand. For many people，this was Ms. Cleary’s greatest strength： she remembered whatit really felt like to be a kid.

當(dāng)雷蒙娜遇到麻煩時(shí)，通常都很有趣，而大多數(shù)孩子也能理解。對(duì)很多人來說，這是克利里女士最大的優(yōu)勢(shì)：她記得小時(shí)候的真實(shí)感受。

Ms. Cleary worked hard to get kids hooked5 on reading. When her son didn’t show much interest in books， she wrote The Mouse and the Motorcycle，The book tells the exciting"story of a motorcycle-riding mouse and his friendship with ayoung boy. The book was a hit， too.

克利里努力讓孩子們迷上閱讀。當(dāng)她兒子對(duì)書籍不太感興趣時(shí)，她寫了《老鼠和摩托車》。這本書講述了一個(gè)騎摩托車的老鼠與一個(gè)小男孩的友誼的激動(dòng)人心的故事。這本書也很成功。

But that kind of fantasy was unusual for Ms. Cleary，who usually focused on real life， even when it involvedserious problems.

但那種童話對(duì)克利里來說并不常見，她通常關(guān)注現(xiàn)實(shí)生活，甚至?xí)婕皣?yán)肅問題。

In several of the Ramona books， the parents have money trouble or are unhappywith their jobs. Dear Mr.Henshaw tells the story of a boy dealing with his parents’divorce6. Ms. Cleary deals with these situations with a gentle humor and a deepunderstanding.

在雷蒙娜系列中，父母會(huì)有經(jīng)濟(jì)困難或?qū)ぷ鞑粷M意?！队H愛的亨肖先生》講述了一個(gè)男孩應(yīng)對(duì)父母離婚的故事?？死锱恳詼睾偷挠哪蜕羁痰睦斫鈦硖幚磉@些情節(jié)。

Ms. Cleary kept writing until she was 83， creating over 40 books in all. She wonalmost every award there is for children’s books， including the Newbery Medal andthe National Book Award.

克利里一直寫作到83 歲，總共創(chuàng)作了40 多本書。她幾乎贏得了所有童書獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)，包括紐伯瑞獎(jiǎng)和美國(guó)國(guó)家圖書獎(jiǎng)。

More than 91 million copies of her books have been sold， and her stories havebeen translated into nearly 30 different languages.

她的作品已售出9100 多萬冊(cè)，她的故事被翻譯成近30 種不同的語言。

Though Ms. Cleary is no longer with us， her characters and stories will be lovedand shared for years to come.

雖然克利里已經(jīng)不在人世，但她筆下的人物和故事在未來的歲月里仍會(huì)被人們喜愛和分享。

（英語原文選自：www.seattletimes.com）

▏Notes

1. ordinary. 普通的；平凡的

2. scrub. 用力擦洗；使凈化

3. curious. 好奇的，有求知欲的

4. stubborn. 頑固的；頑強(qiáng)的

5. hooked. 入迷的

6. divorce. 離婚；分離