WRITER

Beverly Cleary

1916 - 2021

Beverly Cleary

Beverly Atlee Cleary (née Bunn; April 12, 1916 – March 25, 2021) was an American writer of children's and young adult fiction. One of America's most successful authors, 91 million copies of her books have been sold worldwide since her first book was published in 1950. Some of her best known characters are Ramona Quimby and Beezus Quimby, Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy, and Ralph S. Mouse.The majority of Cleary's books are set in the Grant Park neighborhood of northeast Portland, Oregon, where she was raised, and she has been credited as one of the first authors of children's literature to figure emotional realism in the narratives of her characters, often children in middle-class families. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Beverly Cleary has received more than 2,579,213 page views. Her biography is available in 28 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 26 in 2019). Beverly Cleary is the 6,475th most popular writer (down from 5,715th in 2019), the 12,167th most popular biography from United States (down from 10,544th in 2019) and the 893rd most popular American Writer.

Memorability Metrics

2.6M
Page Views (PV)
40.83
Historical Popularity Index (HPI)
28
Languages Editions (L)
1.41
Effective Languages (L*)
4.83
Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Ramona Forever

nagging, soap operas, Humorous Stories

If you're not already a Beverly Cleary fan, you'll discover why she's such a popular author when you read Ramona Forever, the newest adventure in the Quimby family series. This story of a grown-up third grader who is sometimes a pest but always wonderful will keep you smiling till the very last page.

1927

Ramona and Her Father

Fathers, Growing Up, Elementary School

Lately Ramona had the terrible feeling that she was the only happy member of the Quimby family. Since her father lost his job, he seemed too worried to love her anymore. Ramona's mother and big sister Beezus had become awfully busy and and grouchy. Even Picky-picky, the family cat, was grumpy. He didn't like her new cheaper food and had eaten the Quimby's Halloween jack-o'-lantern instead. Ramona tried everything she could to make things better. With Beezus's help she launched a campaign to stop her father from smoking so much, but he didn't seem to appreciate it. Ramona also tried to act adorable, like kids in TV commercials. Mr. Quimby said the boy who sang the Whopperburger jingle made a million dollars year! Ramona wanted to make a million dollars, too, because then her father would surely be fun again.

1977

The Mouse and the Motorcycle

People & Places, social themes, friendship

A young mouse named Ralph looked out of his mousehole in Room 215 of the Mountain View Inn. The New tenant of the room, a boy, was playing with a little motorcycle just the right size for a mouse. Ralph could hardly wait till the boy left the room. Hurriedly he scrambled up the telephone cord to the bedside table, where the motorcycle was parked. With growing excitement, Ralph mounted the handsome machine and grasped its handgrips. Suddenly the telephone rang, and the motorcycle with its rider rolled off the table into the metal wastebasket. Ralph was sure he was doomed to be thrown out with the trash. Instead, the mouse found an unexpected career as a motorcyclist opening up to him. Beverly Cleary's first excursion into fantasy is a real triumph in the world of children's books.

1965

Ramona and Her Mother

Fiction, Juvenile audience, Juvenile works

Now that her daddy has a job, Ramona hopes that her mother will stop working. If Mrs. Quimby stays home again, Ramona won’t have to stay with Howie’s grandmother after school, and her parents won’t be so tired and irritable. And maybe Ramona, like her sister, Beezus, will be singled out in front of company as “her mother’s girl.” Ramona knows that would make her feel good. But life at the Quimby household is not going to be as it was. Ramona’s mother will keep her job. Still, she’ll never be too busy to pay attention to Ramona…will she? —back cover

1923

Ramona Quimby, Age 8

Beverly Cleary, Newbery, Newbery Honor

***Now that Ramona is eight-years-old, she's doing all kinds of things she's never done before.*** She's in a new school with a new teacher, and best of all, s e takes the school bus--all by herself! But since her mother works and her daddy's in art school, Ramona has to stay with old Mrs. Kemp every day until Beezus comes for her. And as if all that isn't bad enough, **she has to be nice to four-year-old Willa Jean.** ***Ramona knows the family is depending on her to be brave with all those changes. but sometimes it's hard. Can Ramona really handle a new school, help out at home, put up with Willa Jean, and still keep smiling?***

1981

Runaway Ralph

watchdogs, motorcycling, camping

One of the most popular characters ever created by Beverly Cleary is the small brown mouse named Ralph, whose modest appearance disguises the soul of a daredevil. Now he returns in a book that tells of his adventures when he runs away on his mouse-sized motorcycle. Ralph's destination is a summer camp, for medium-sized boys and girls, where he hopes crumbs are dropped from many peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. After an exciting ride through the night, the intrepid Ralph arrives. Instead of finding freedom. however, he lands in a cage, doing endless loop the loops on his exercise wheel. A lonely boy named Garf brings him sunflower seeds and water, but there is no communication between the two. How Ralph and Garf discover they speak the same language involves a villainous cat, a grouchy hamster, and many campers. Each episode is funnier than the last. On one level, Mrs. Cleary's story is an amusing tour de force. On another, she says something important about running away that is all the more effective because it is unobtrusive.

1970

Page views of Beverly Clearies by language

Over the past year Beverly Cleary has had the most page views in the English wikipedia edition with 168,342 views, followed by French (2,470), and Japanese (2,094). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are Italian (259.38%), Catalan (53.50%), and Hungarian (46.30%)