History Creator / BeverlyCleary

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 2016, she is 100 years young.

* BrilliantButLazy: Otis gets in trouble during class because he finishes his schoolwork ahead of itme.

* ''Literature/DearMrHenshaw'' (her only book to win the NewberyMedal)

* NiceGirl

* NiceGuy/NiceLady

* NiceGirl/NiceLady

* NiceLady

Beverly Cleary is an American children's author.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: One of the central themes of ''Mitch and Amy''.

* TheBully: Alan Hibbler and his older friend Dwight in ''Mitch and Amy''.

* EverybodyHatesMathematics: In ''Mitch and Amy'' Amy hates math. Mitch on the other hand is good at math but hates reading.

* HumiliationConga:
** Happens to the bully Alan at the end of ''Mitch and Amy'', starting when he loudly and publicly misspells a word and ends when he gets leg swept by a girl.
** Happens to Otis Spofford at the end of his book. Ellen and Austine steal his shoes while he's ice skating in retaliation for Otis' having cut Ellen's hair, making him walk home in his ice skates to the amusement of all the kids and irritation of all the adults he meets.
* IWasBeatenByAGirl: Invoked in ''Mitch and Amy'' when Amy at the end says that Alan Hibbler won't dare bully a Brownie (Girl Scout) again after Bernadette pins him to the ground in front of a crowd.

* NoSmoking: Surprisingly averted in ''Mitch and Amy'' when Dwight lights up a cigarette. Of course, he chokes on it and makes a fool of himself.
* PolarOppositeTwins: The title characters of ''Mitch and Amy''.

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Averted in ''Otis Spofford''. Otis' class puts on a fake bullfight as part of a school performance, and Otis (as the front half of the bull) goes off script and causes the bull to win the fight. As the teacher is preparing to chew him out, several parents approach and tell her how hilarious the fight was and what a good idea it was to have the bull win. Otis doesn't get in trouble from the teacher, and outruns the two boys who played the toreador and the back half of the bull.

* DudeNotFunny: Invoked in ''Otis Spofford'' when Otis cuts Ellen's hair and rather than laugh, the class just stares at Otis. Even Otis realizes almost right away that he went way too far.

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Averted in ''Otis Spofford''. Otis' class puts on a fake bullfight as part of a school performance, and Otis (as the front half of the bull) goes off script and causes the bull to win the fight. As the teacher is preparing to chew him out, several parents approach and tell her how hilarious the fight was and what a good idea it was to have the bull win. Otis doesn't get in trouble from the teacher, and outruns the two boys who played the toreador and the back half of the bull.

* GoneHorriblyWrong: Ellen Tebbits's plan to bring in a biennial beet to class results in her making her clothes filthy from digging the beet up, and ruining her dress by getting it stained with beet juice. Plus she almost gets in a lot of trouble for taking the beet without permission, and got written up for arriving to school late.

* NoSmoking: Surprisingly averted in ''Mitch and Amy'' when Dwight lights up a cigarette. Of course, he choked on it and made a fool of himself.
* PolarOppositeTwins: Mitch and Amy in ''Mitch and Amy''.
* 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.

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.

* HeAlsoDid: Cleary wrote [[http://collectingchildrensbooks.blogspot.com/2008/08/leave-it-to-beverly.html three novels tied in]] with ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''. She also wrote two autobiographies, some YA books like ''Fifteen'' and ''Sister of the Bride'', and ''Socks'', which was done in the point of view of the family cat.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: One of the central themes of ''Mitch and Amy''. Happens between Ramona and Beezus too.
* TheBully: Alan Hibbler and his older friend Dwight in ''Mitch and Amy''. Henry Huggins' older friend Scooter briefly turns into a bully when he and Henry get into competition for a paper route.
* ADayInTheLimelight:
** ''Beezus and Ramona'' is the first to focus on those characters after they'd played a supporting role in the Henry Huggins books, and the only book written from Beezus' point of view.
** ''Ribsy'' is considered the final book of the ''Henry Huggins'' series, and takes the point of view of his dog, whose name is used as the [[CharacterTitle title]].
** ''Otis Spofford'', whose title character originally had a supporting role in ''Ellen Tebbits''.

* InSeriesNickname: Beezus, a major character in the ''Henry Huggins'' and ''Ramona Quimby'' series is actually named Beatrice, but almost nobody calls her that.

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 that includes Henry Huggins (and his dog Ribsy), Henry's friend Beatrice "Beezus" Quimby and her little sister Ramona, and Ramona's friend Howie Kemp. [[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.

* ''Literature/HenryHuggins series''
* ''Literature/RamonaQuimby series''
* ''Literature/RalphSMouse''

** ''Ribsy'' centers around Henry's eponymous dog.

* TheGenericGuy: Henry's best friend Robert. His personality was pretty much the same as Henry's but less developed. Unlike many Generic Guys, Robert was an important character all the way through the Henry Huggins series.

* InsufferableGenius: Murph from the Henry Huggins series, at first. He lightens up.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Scooter [=McCarthy=]. He often gives Henry a hard time but defends him when he's really upset. He also gets better in the later books.
* LetHimChoose: In one of the books with Henry and Ribsy, Ribsy's original owner shows up and wants his dog back. They decide to let Ribsy choose. He goes with Henry, of course.

* RunningGag: Beezus trouncing Henry at checkers.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The Henry Huggins series in general for the 1950s. Henry and his friends never play videogames and rarely watch TV, and they do things like compete over paper routes and scrounge for junk to sell to the garbage man.

* ItRunsOnNonsensoleum: Ralph S. Mouse can drive toy vehicles by making the appropriate noises. And drive them in reverse by making the noises backwards.

* PlaygroundSong: "Great Green Globs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts" makes an appearance in one of the Ralph S. Mouse books.

* SurprisinglyFunctionalToys: ''The Mouse and the Motorcycle'' and sequels.

* DungeonBypass: In ''Ralph S. Mouse'', the kids build a maze for Ralph to run. Ralph climbs on top of the walls to look for the cheese, to the annoyance of the kids (who were building the maze to see how smart Ralph was in the first place).

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]].

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]].

Another well-known series by Beverly Cleary begins with ''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]].

* DisappearedDad: Ralph S. Mouse's dad was killed some time before the first book by an aspirin pill. He was carrying it in his cheek and it dissolved.

* HeelFaceTurn: In ''Ralph S. Mouse'', Brad is introduced as a mean kid and borderline bully who punches Ryan in a fight and breaks Ralph's motorcycle. After Ryan and Brad actually talk, they end up becoming friends and Brad gives Ralph a car to replace the motorcycle.

* Literature/RamonaQuimby series
* Literature/EmilysRunawayImagination