Beverly Cleary has sold 85 million copies of 41 books and — if those numbers weren't impressive enough — she turns 100 on Tuesday. Though the world was a very different place when Cleary was a child, she has always maintained that kids pretty much stay the same — which explains the ongoing popularity of her beloved characters, like Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins and Ralph S. Mouse.

    Cleary was in her early 30s and working part time in a bookstore when she sat down at a typewriter to see if just maybe she could write a book for kids. She had worked as a librarian before World War II, and she wished she'd had books for young readers about children living everyday lives.

    "I think children want to read about normal, everyday kids," she told NPR in 1999. "That's what I wanted to read about when I was growing up. I wanted to read about the sort of boys and girls that I knew in my neighborhood and in my school. ... I think children like to find themselves in books."

    Her first book, Henry Huggins, came out in 1950. Henry had a friend named Beezus, and Beezus had a mischievous（爱恶作剧的） but lovable little sister named Ramona. Over the next five decades, Cleary took Ramona all the way from nursery school （托儿所）to the fourth grade. Cleary says when she was writing Ramona, she took inspiration（灵感） from a little girl who lived in the house behind her as a child.

    Her books have hooked generations（几代） of children, including a young Jeff Kinney, who grew up to become the author of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series.

    "I must have been about 8 or 9 years old when I first read Beverly Cleary," Kinney recalls. "The book that really grabbed me was Ramona Quimby, Age 8. She looked feral. I needed to get to know this character."

    "Most kids have parents, teachers, bullies（欺凌） — we all experience these things,"Kinney says. "And Beverly Cleary tapped into that. Her work is still as relevant today as when it first came out."

    Now, generations of children have been fortunate enough to enjoy her stories of Klickitat Street.

    Have you ever been sad because of failure? Please remember, for quite often achieving what you set out to do is not the most important thing.

    A boy decided to dig a deep hole behind his house. As he was working, a couple of older boys stopped by to watch. “What are you doing?” asked one of the visitors. “I want to dig a hole all the way through the earth!” the boy answered excitedly. The older boys began to laugh, telling him that digging a hole all the way through the earth was impossible. After a while, the boy picked up a jar. He showed it to the visitors. It was full of all kinds of stones and insects. Then he said calmly and confidently, “Maybe I can't finish digging all the way through the earth, but look at what I've found during this period!”

    The boy's goal was far too difficult, but it did cause him to go on. And that is what a goal is for－to cause us to move in the direction we have chosen, in other words, to cause us to keep working!

    Not every goal will be fully achieved. Not every job will end up with a success. Not every dream will come true. But when you fall short of your aim, maybe you can say, “Yes, but look at what I've found along the way! There are so many wonderful things having come into my life because I tried to do something!” It is in the digging that life is lived. It is the unexpected joy on the journey that really makes sense.

    The summer holidays are coming up. It's time to fill the bookshelves with quality literature for the kids. Here are some great books.

    Josephine Wants to Dance by Jackie French

    Price: $14.99 (for ages 4+)

    Josephine is a kangaroo who loves to dance. Her little brother, Joey, tells her that kangaroos don't dance; they jump. But Josephine continues to point her toes and leap through the air. When a ballet group comes to town and the lead ballerina (芭蕾舞演员) is injured, Josephine is called upon to help save the day. Can she do it, and, more importantly, does it matter that she's a kangaroo?

    House of Secrets by Chris Columbus

    Price: $19.99 (for ages 9+)

    The Walker kids —Caroline, Brendan and Nell—may have saved the world, but they can't save their home and must leave Kristoff House. Things can't get any worse, but then it turns out that the Wind Witch is still alive and planning an attack. To defeat her, the Walkers must return to the book world. The Walkers always help each other, but they must do it alone in their most important mission yet. And this time, if they fail, there's no chance of coming back.

    Edge of Extinction Book 1 by Laura Martin

    Price: $16.00 (for ages 9+)

    If you like The Land of the Dinosaurs, you will love this book. Two hundred years ago, the first dinosaur was successfully cloned (克隆). Soon after, humans realized they'd made a big mistake. Thirteen-year-old Sky Mundy's father suddenly disappeared five years ago. Along with her best friend， Shawn， she steps out into the world above --a world of dinosaurs --to look for him. Then she learns that everything she's been taught has been a lie.

    Last summer, bird-watchers confirmed the discovery of a new species of bird in Cambodia was not an event of particular biological significance, but it was striking for one reason in part. This species of bird was discovered not in an unspoiled rain forest but within the limits Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh – a city the size of Philadelphia.

What the researchers found was surprising in cities. The medium-sized city in the state about 110 species of birds, over 95 percent of which would have been growing there urbanization. Ecologically speaking, cities are different, concrete buildings. Rather, each unique bio-profile – a kind of ecological fingerprint – that is against the idea of an environment dead zone.

    Of course, it's also true that in the world of birds and plants, as in human society, there is such a thing as worldwide—the city-inhabitants who feel equally at home in San Francisco, Milan and Beijing. Four birds occur in more than 80 percent of the cities studied, and 11 plants occurred in more than 90 percent of the cities. On the plant side, those are seemingly spread by European settlement. In the air, it's the usual suspects: the rock pigeon and many other birds. “They have become completely adapted to urban life,”Katti says. “That's not much of surprise. But they don't actually dominate as much as we think they do.” Those species—occurring in the cities across the globe—represent only a small part of a city's natural varieties.

    Not all cities are equal protectors of native animals and plants, though. One of the biggest predictors for a city's biodiversity is its urban design. Territory as varied as backyards and street trees can lay important roles in greening a city. In fact, the amount of green space is a stronger predictor of the density of biodiversity than a city's size. A metropolis with a sizable network of parks can contain more species per square mile than a much smaller city.

    In a world where architecture, food, language, fashion and commerce are increasingly globalized, a city's native animals and plants can be a kind of identity. There may be neighborhoods in London and Paris that resemble Singapore or Hong Kong. Cities are becoming similar, but their natural environments stand completely apart.

    One Sunday, Nicholas, a teenager, went skiing at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine. In the early afternoon, when he was planning to go home, a fierce snowstorm swept into the area. Unable to see far, he accidentally turned off the path. Before he knew it, Nicholas was lost, all alone! He didn't have food, water, a phone, or other supplies. He was getting colder by the minute.

    Nicholas had no idea where he was. He tried not to panic(惊慌). He thought about all the survival shows he had watched on TV. It was time to put the tips he had learned to use.

    He decided to stop skiing. There was a better chance of someone finding him if he stayed put. The first thing he did was to find shelter from the freezing wind and snow. If he didn't, his body temperature would get very low, which could quickly kill him.

    Using his skis, Nicholas built a snow cave. He gathered a huge mass of snow and dug out a hole in the middle. Then he piled branches on top of himself, like a blanket, to stay as warm as he could.

By that evening, Nicholas was really hungry. He ate snow and drank water from a nearby stream so that his body wouldn't lose too much water. Not knowing how much longer he could last, Nicholas did the only thing he could— he huddled in his cave and slept.

    The next day, Nicholas went out to look for help, but he couldn't find anyone. He followed his tracks and returned to the snow cave, because without shelter, he could die that night. On Tuesday, Nicholas went out to find help. He had walked for about a mile when a volunteer searcher found him. After two days stuck in the snow, Nicholas was saved.

    Nicholas might not have survived this snowstorm had it not been for TV. He had often watched Grylls'survival show Man Vs. Wild. That's where he learned the tips that saved his life. In each episode of Man Vs. Wild, Grylls is abandoned in a wild area and has to find his way out.

    When Grylls heard about Nicholas'amazing deeds, he was super impressed that Nicholas had made it since he knew better than anyone how hard Nicholas had to work to stay alive.

    A new study suggests some language learning can take place during sleep. Researchers from Switzerland's University of Bern say they discovered people were able to learn new language words during deep levels of sleep.

    Much of the earlier research found that memories made when awake were strengthened during sleep. This supported the idea that information learned while awake is replayed and deeply embedded in the sleeping brain.

    The researchers theorized that, if replay during sleep improves the storage of learned information while awake, the processing and storage of new information should also be possible during sleep.

    They carried out experiments on a group of young German­speaking men and women, which centered on periods of deep sleep called "up­states". They identified these slow­wave peaks as the best moments for sleep­learning.

    The researchers observed individuals in a controlled environment during brief periods of sleep. Brain activity was recorded as pairs of words were played for the study subjects. One word in the pair was a real German word. The other was a made­up foreign word. For later identification purposes, the German words chosen were things clearly larger or smaller than a shoebox.

    Each word pair was played four times, with the order of the words changed each time. The word pairs were played at a rhythm that is similar to actual brain activity during deep sleep. The goal was to create a lasting memory link between the false word and the German word that individuals could identify while awake.

    When the subjects woke, they were presented with the false language words­both by sight and sound. They were then asked to guess whether the false word played during sleep represented an object smaller or larger than a shoebox. Results of the study found that a majority of subjects gave more correct answers about the sleep­learned words than would be expected if they had only guessed at random.

    The researchers said they measured increased signals affecting a part of the brain known as the hippocampus. This brain structure is very important for building relational memory during non­sleep periods. The researchers also said memory was best for word pairs presented during slow­wave peaks during sleep.

    The study suggests that memory formation in sleep appears to be caused by the same brain structures that support vocabulary learning while awake. The researchers say more studies are needed to support their findings. However, the experiments do provide new evidence that memories can be formed and vocabulary learning can take place in both conscious and unconscious states.