Literacy in the Park 2026
A free community celebration of children's books and the author who called this valley home.
Come for the books. Stay for the wagon rides. Leave with a story you'll tell all year.
Beverly Cleary Days is a free, family-friendly celebration held every year in the town where Beverly Cleary herself grew up. We bring together authors, illustrators, readers young and old, and enough fun to fill a chapter book.
What's in Store
🛺 Wagon Rides
Climb aboard for a ride through the heart of Yamhill.
🏎️ RC Car Races
Bring your own or borrow one. The track is open to all ages.
📚 Author & Illustrator Book Signings
Meet the people who make the books. Get yours signed.
🎨 Story & Art Contests
Young writers and artists, this one's for you.
🗺️ Walk with Beverly
Follow the signs through downtown Yamhill and discover the real places that inspired some of Beverly Cleary's stories.
🎪 Bounce House
Because sometimes you just need to bounce.
🏅 Raffles & Prizes
You just might go home with something wonderful.
🍪 Cookies
Because cookies!
Walk with Beverly
Long before she wrote Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and a shelf's worth of beloved characters, Beverly Cleary was a little girl growing up in Yamhill, Oregon.
Her first childhood home is still here. The church she attended is still here. The general store where townspeople gathered? Yes, still here. Yamhill is a small town, but it holds a big story.
Walk with Beverly is a self-guided tour through downtown Yamhill, marked with signs pointing out the real places that shaped one of America's most beloved children's authors. It's perfect for little readers who want to walk in Beverly's footsteps, and for the grown-ups who read her books first.
Check in at the event for details, and set out at your own pace. The whole walk is just about a mile.
About Beverly Cleary
Beverly Cleary was born in McMinnville, Oregon, and grew up in Yamhill, a small community in the heart of the Willamette Valley. The sights, sounds, and characters of her early childhood found their way into her books, giving readers around the world a window into a simpler, sweeter time.
Over a career spanning more than six decades, she wrote over 40 books, including the beloved Ramona Quimby series, Henry Huggins, and Dear Mr. Henshaw, which won the Newbery Medal in 1984. Her books have sold more than 91 million copies and have never gone out of print.
She was, above all, a writer who took children seriously. She remembered exactly what it felt like to be young, and wrote about it with honesty, warmth, and a very good sense of humor.
We celebrate her here, where it all began.
The Yamhill Valley Children's Literature Project
The Yamhill Valley Children's Literature Project exists to celebrate and promote children's literature — the books, the people who read them, and the people who create them.
We are a nonprofit organization rooted in the Yamhill Valley, honoring the legacy of one of Oregon's greatest literary treasures while building new traditions for the next generation of readers and writers.
Beverly Cleary Days is one of our signature programs. We also bring authors into local schools and host an annual children's literary festival for authors and illustrators.
Follow us: @yvchildrenslit
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