A Book Lover’s Day in Portland Following Beverly Cleary

Did you know Beverly Cleary lived and wrote her famous Klickitat Street Stories in Portland, Oregon and today you can stand face to face with statues of her characters Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and his dog Ribbsy? Watch the vlog to join me for a Book Lover’s Day in Portland following in the footsteps of Beverly Cleary!

A few years ago when I was driving through Portland on my way to stay at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, I made a brief stop at Powell’s Books, during which I happened upon a book titled Walking with Ramona. The author, Laura O. Foster, is a former walking tour guide who decided to put the directions and history she once provided during her walks into a book for those that want to DIY her Cleary/Ramona walk. From this book, I discovered that not only can you visit the statues of Cleary’s characters, but you can walk in the footsteps of Beverly Cleary though her former neighborhood, the very neighborhood where she played as a child with kids that would later inspire the children in her books!

I have distinct memories of listening to the audio book of Ramona Quimby Age 8 while in the car with my family when I was younger, so I bought the walking guide and I’d been very much looking forward to returning to Portland to “walk with Ramona” ever since. As TravelCon 2024 was hosted in Portland this year, it gave me the perfect excuse to return to Portland with my Ramona books.

• First, we bike to Powell’s City of Books, the largest new and used independent bookstore in the country, to pick up copies of a couple of Cleary’s books.
• Then we follow the walk outlined in Walking with Ramona, which starts at the Grant Park Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden, takes us down Hancock Street through Cleary’s former neighborhood, and ends at the real Klickitat Street. (2026 Update: The Beverly Cleary wall at the Hollywood Library has been removed due to renovations.)
• Finally, we’ll wind down our day at the Heathman Hotel in its cozy lobby library.

Find the books:
Disclosure: These are affiliate links, meaning if you purchase a book through these links, I’ll make a few cents at no extra cost to you! If you order a book through Bookshop you can support an independent bookstore of your choice, unfortunately Powell’s is not one of the choices, but you can order directly from Powell’s online as well.

• Find Walking with Ramona by Laura O. Foster on Amazon
• Find Henry Huggins on Bookshop, or the Henry Huggins 6 book set on Amazon
• Find the Ramona Collection (8 book set) on Bookshop or Amazon
• Find the Ramona Quimby Audio Collection narrated by Stockard Channing on Audible

If you enjoyed the vlog, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the YouTube channel so you don’t miss future literary travel videos! Then tell me in the comments if you have fond memories of reading Beverly Cleary’s books!