History Creator / BeverlyCleary

Her birthday, April 12th, is designated as "Drop Everything and Read Day" ([[FunWithAcronyms DEAR]], as introduced in ''Ramona Quimby, Age 8'') in American elementary schools, in which lessons stop and the students simply read whatever they want silently. As of April 12 2019, she is 103 years young. When asked if she had any tips for such longevity on her 100th birthday, she simply said “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

* DudeNotFunny: Invoked in ''Otis Spofford'' when Otis cuts Ellen's hair and rather then laugh, the class just stares at Otis. Even Otis realizes almost right away that [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he went way too far]]; pride prevents him from apologizing, however.

* BigBrotherBully: Austine has an older brother named Bruce who picked on her and Ellen a little bit. When he caught Otis bullying them one day however, he suggested that they turn the tables and bully him (the implication that he would beat Otis up if he tried to retaliate).

Her birthday, April 12th, is designated as "Drop Everything and Read Day" ([[FunWithAcronyms DEAR]], as introduced in ''Ramona Quimby, Age 8'') in American elementary schools, in which lessons stop and the students simply read whatever they want silently. As of April 12 2019, she is 103 years young.

Her birthday, April 12th, is designated as "Drop Everything and Read Day" ([[FunWithAcronyms DEAR]], as introduced in ''Ramona Quimby, Age 8'') in American elementary schools, in which lessons stop and the students simply read whatever they want silently. As of April 12 2018, she is 102 years young.

* ArmorPiercingSlap: Austine has been annoying Ellen all day by untying the sash of her dress, and when Ellen feels her sash get untied again, she decides it's TheLastStraw, whirls around and slaps Austine across the face. Only it wasn't Austine who untied the sash that time... it was [[spoiler:Otis]].

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In ''Ellen Tebbits'', Ellen has this reaction immediately after slapping Austine across the face for allegedly untying the sash of her dress, thus ending their friendship. It doesn't help later on when she finds out that [[spoiler:the culprit was Otis, and not Austine]].

* ISeeLondon: Invoked by Otis in ''Ellen Tebbits'' in the "biennial beet" chapter when he notices that Ellen tore her dress.

* TheLabRat: Played straight in one chapter of ''Otis Spofford'', in which Mrs. Gitler's class conducts a scientific experiment with two ''actual'' rats: one, named Pinky, is fed bits of the cafeteria lunch (which includes such healthy but unappetizing fare as scalloped potatoes and Swiss chard), and the other, named Mutt, is fed nothing but white bread and soda pop. When Otis sees how unhealthy and agitated Mutt looks due to the rat's poor diet, he decides to [[SabotageToDiscredit sabotage the experiment]] by feeding Mutt cheese and vitamin pills on the sly, in the hope that when Mutt weighs in heavier than Pinky, it will convince school officials to serve white bread and pop for lunch. He hadn't counted on two things, however: first, that his teacher would be smart enough to figure out what was going on; and second, [[spoiler:that Ellen would ''also'' feed Mutt in secret, sneaking him bits of her own lunch. Ellen gets to take Mutt home as a pet as she confessed to feeding him before Otis did, but ends up giving Mutt to Otis when her mother forbids her to have a rat in the house.]]

* TheLabRat: Played literally in ''Otis Spofford'', as Otis's class conducts a nutritional experiment with two ''actual'' rats: one (named Pinky) is fed nutritious fare from the school's hot cafeteria lunches and the other (which Otis names Mutt) is fed nothing but white bread and soda pop. Seeing that Mutt appears unhealthy and agitated, Otis sabotages the experiment by feeding Mutt cheese and vitamin pills on the sly, hoping that if Mutt weighs in heavier than Pinky, it will convince school officials to serve white bread and pop in the cafeteria. Otis, however, hadn't counted on two things: first of all, that his teacher would be smart enough to figure out what was going on; and second, that [[spoiler:Ellen had ''also'' been feeding Mutt secretly, smuggling him some of her own hot lunch. As Ellen confessed to it before Otis did, she gets to take Mutt home as a pet, but then has to give Mutt to Otis because her mother won't have a rat in the house.]]

* AssholeVictim: Otis Spofford in the final chapter of his self-titled book, when Ellen and Austine finally turn the tables on him. Even his close friends Stewy and George turn on him after the haircut incident, although they have their own reasons for wanting to see Otis get his comeuppance, as he's spent much of the book one-upping them in various ways. And although Otis had it coming, it's hard not to feel bad for him.

** Like Mitch of Cleary's ''Mitch and Amy'', Otis is an ace at arithmetic, while Ellen, like Amy, struggles with it.

* SitcomArchNemesis: Ellen Tebbits and Otis Spofford, to each other. Otis got started antagonizing Ellen because his mother is Ellen's ballet teacher, and he's usually (but not always) the instigator.

* RadishCure: In ''Otis Spofford'', the title character's teacher has him make spitballs exclusively as punishment for shooting them.
** Cleary also includes a story in her autobiography of some boys who chewed garlic in class. The principal finally bought a dollar's worth of garlic—this was in the 1930s—and had them chew it all.

** Ellen gets her own turn in ''Otis Spofford'', even ''before'' Otis cuts her hair, including [[KickTheDog mocking him for his underwear]] that got turned pink in the wash.

* AssholeVictim: Otis Spofford in the final chapter of his self-titled book, when Ellen and Austine finally turn the tables on him. Even his close friends Stewy and George turn on him after the haircut incident. And although Otis had it coming because of how he'd constantly tormented Ellen, it's hard not to feel bad for him.

* DudeNotFunny: Invoked in ''Otis Spofford'' when Otis cuts Ellen's hair and rather then laugh, the class just stares at Otis. Even Otis realizes almost right away that he went way too far; pride prevents him from apologizing, however.

Her birthday, April 12th, is designated as "Drop Everything and Read Day" in American elementary schools, in which lessons stop and the students simply read whatever they want silently. As of April 12 2018, she is 102 years young.

* SchoolPlay: Ellen's class puts on a production of ''Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin'' with a {{Bowdlerise less traumatic ending}}: in their version, the Pied Piper brings the children home and the kids get to do a maypole dance.

* SchoolPlay: Ellen's class puts on a production of ''Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin'' with a [[Bowdlerise less traumatic ending]]: in their version, the Pied Piper brings the children home and the kids get to do a maypole dance.

* SchoolPlay: Ellen's class puts on a production of ''Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin'' with a [[Bowdlerise]]d ending: in their version, the Pied Piper brings the children home and the kids get to do a maypole dance.

* SchoolPlay: Ellen's class puts on a production of ''Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin'' with a [[Bowdlerize Bowdlerized]] ending: in their version, the Pied Piper brings the children home and the kids get to do a maypole dance.

** She also has this reaction in the first chapter of the book, when she lashes out at Austine for talking about California all the time. She apologizes afterward and the two become friends.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Ellen has this reaction immediately after slapping Austine across the face for allegedly untying the sash of her dress, thus ending their friendship. It doesn't help later on when she finds out that [[spoiler:the culprit was Otis, and not Austine]].

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Ellen has this reaction immediately after slapping Austine across the face for allegedly untying the sash of her dress, thus ending their friendship. It doesn't help later on when she finds out that the culprit was Otis, and not Austine.