When I was a kid, I read all of Beverly Cleary's books because ... well, maybe because the pictures were cool or they were somewhat intereting, I don't know. At the time I thought the stories a bit bland and ordinary.
Later, all grown up as a college student and with some time to kill in the library, I found myself in the children's section and on a whim, pulled out one of the Cleary books and started to read. They almost had to kick me out of the library because I was laughing loud enough to disturb others, and couldn't stop.
Cleary was a superb writer. Her prose was exquisitely lean, concise, and visual. She never condescended to her readers and always respected the dignity of her characters. As a kid, reading about kid things, to me at the time it seemed almost like straight reporting, and not particularly comical. Later, her clean and understated writing style and objective way of chronicling the antics of kids made for very, very funny reading from an adult perspective.
She wrote a scene about Ramona being in class and not feeling well. She happened to look over at the jars of fruit flies in blue oatmeal that the class had set up to study. The sight of the flies and the oatmeal was too much for Ramona and she finally threw up.
Even as a 7 year-old kid I remember that being such a well described scene that I could actually feel myself getting nauseous at the thought of the blue oatmeal. "Beezus and Ramona" was one of my favorite books at that age.
I really liked the Ramona books when I was little. Beverly Cleary was a great writer for school aged kids. The blue oatmeal brings back memories! I also LOVED the Bobbsey Twins books by Laura Lee Hope. Good writing, somewhat dated but still entertaining reading for a child.
I read Judy Blume's "teen" novels and thought they were trashy and stupid. Her characters were quite wooden and I couldn't relate to them, even as a pre-teen and teenager.
I loved Madeline L'Engle. She wrote some fabulous books. I particularly enjoyed "Many Waters" and "A Ring of Endless Light" as a teenager, and "A Wrinkle In Time" is great for younger readers.
Part of the problem is that I began reading at the age of 3, and by Kindergarten was reading at the 6th grade level. During elementary school my teachers gave me various books to try to keep me interested, even if the subject matter was somewhat questionable for a young child (as in Blume's teen books). Plus I read very quickly. It must sound pathetic but in late elementary school I was so bored I resorted to reading the encyclopedia!
I eventually read my father's Tom Clancy and W.E.B. Griffen novels around the age of 13, and there were definitely some mature themes in those books. He let me read "The Hunt for Red October" when I was in 4th grade, but the others had to wait until I was older. ;-)