1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beverly_cleary_2006.jpeg]] |
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3 | ->''"Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school."'' |
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5 | Beverly Atlee Cleary (April 12, 1916 – March 25, 2021) was an American children's author. |
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7 | Her largest and best-known collection of books (too loose-knit to be really a "series", although there is a chronological order) involves a group of children in Portland, Oregon (where Cleary herself grew up), including Literature/HenryHuggins and his dog Ribsy, Henry's friend Beatrice "Beezus" Quimby and her little sister Ramona, and Ramona's friend Howie Kemp. [[Literature/RamonaQuimby Ramona]] is the break-out star character of the series. They were adapted into a TV series in the [=1980s=] (called ''Ramona''), and a movie (called ''Ramona and Beezus'') was released in 2010. |
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9 | Another well-known series by Beverly Cleary begins with ''[[Literature/RalphSMouse The Mouse and the Motorcycle]]'', about a mouse who befriends a lonely boy and discovers a useful but never-quite-explained ability to [[SurprisinglyFunctionalToys drive toy vehicles as if they were real]]. |
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11 | Part of what makes the books work so well is the portrayal of various events that are a huge deal to a child. Cleary's insight into the minds of children also creates a large cast of very realistic characters easy for both children and adults to relate to. |
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13 | 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. |
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15 | Cleary lived to be 104 years old. When asked, on her 100th birthday, if she had any tips for such longevity, she simply said, "I didn't do it on purpose." |
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17 | !!Works by Beverly Cleary with their own trope pages include: |
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19 | * ''Literature/HenryHuggins'' series |
20 | * ''Literature/RamonaQuimby'' series |
21 | * ''Literature/EllenAndOtis'' series |
22 | * ''Literature/RalphSMouse'' series |
23 | * ''Literature/DearMrHenshaw'' (her only book to win the MediaNotes/NewberyMedal) and ''Strider'' |
24 | * ''Literature/EmilysRunawayImagination'' |
25 | * ''Literature/MitchAndAmy'' |
26 | * ''{{Literature/Socks}}'' |
27 | ---- |
28 | !!Beverly Cleary's other works provide examples of: |
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30 | * {{Novelization}}: Cleary wrote three soft-cover novels based on ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver'' in the early '60s. |
31 | * RadishCure: Cleary included a story in her autobiography of some boys who chewed garlic in class. The principal finally bought a dollar's worth of garlic[[note]]this was in the 1930s, so a dollar bought a ''lot'' of garlic[[/note]] and had them chew it all. Although Otis chews garlic himself in his self-titled book (as a way to get rid of the taste in his mouth after the "spitball incident"), he does not get punished for it. He does, however, get a Radish Cure for making spitballs. |
32 | * SeriousBusiness: The main characters tend to take a lot of things very seriously, even though their problems would seem very minor from an adult's point of view. Justified since the books are told from a child's perspective, in which things like paper routes and school art projects really ''are'' serious business. |
33 | * SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: While her books portray the ups and downs of life, her books usually have a much lighter spirit, making it more on the idealistic end of the scale. |
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