Beverly Cleary, who contemporaryized children’s literature with books like “Ramona the Pest” and “Henry and Beezus” and became one of the best-selling children’s authors of all time, died Thursday. She was 104 years old.
Her editor HarperCollins tweeted that she died on Thursday.
We are sad to share that dear children’s book author Beverly Cleary passed away yesterday, March 25, at the age of 104. https://t.co/Ifqu3Hfuxg pic.twitter.com/BXywlKTSac
– HarperCollins (@HarperCollins) March 26, 2021
A 10-episode TV series, “Ramona”, based on its most enduring character, the undisciplined Ramona Quimby, starred Sarah Polley in 1988, while “Ramona and Beezus” was transformed into a 2010 film starring Joey King and Selena Gomez .
Cleary sold more than 90 million books, which placed her in the extremely popular ranks of authors like JK Rowling. Her more than 40 books included “The Mouse and the Motorcycle”, “Ralph S. Mouse” and “Henry and Ribsy”, which was one of many that she wrote based on the children she met growing up in her Portland, Oregon neighborhood. .
“The Mouse and the Motorcyle”, about a mouse that talks to children and lives in a run-down hotel, was turned into a 1986 film with Mimi Kennedy and Ray Walston. The great bestseller was part of a trilogy of three Mouse books.
His Young Love books for teenagers, including “Fifteen”, “Sister of the Bride” and “The Luckiest Girl” were more firmly rooted in the mid-century mid-century queens and prom queens, but they were equally popular among women. generation growing up in the 1950s and 1960s.
Although most of his characters were of his own making, Cleary also signed on for a series of adaptations of the popular 1960s TV show, “Leave It to Beaver”.
Born Beverly Bunn, she graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a master’s degree in library science and worked as a children’s librarian before leaving to write full-time. She wanted young people to find books with characters with whom they could identify, which was rare at the time. She published “Henry Huggins” in 1950 and won a Newbury medal, the National Book Award, the National Medal of Arts and the Living Legend award from the Library of Congress.