Christina Koci Hernandez | San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images
Author Beverly Cleary has died at the astounding age of 104. There are remembrances and obituaries all over including:
While the comic creations of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Goscinny & Uderzo, Carl Barks, and Hergé loomed large in my childhood, I’m hard pressed to think of a single author whose chapter books I read more as a kid than Beverly Cleary. This fact was probably aided by the fact that my mom was, like Cleary herself was back in the day, a children’s librarian, and I am of an age that some of the Ramona books were still coming out new when I was of prime age to read them. I also read all the Henry Huggins books, my favorite probably being Ribsy, and also quite liked the tales of Ralph and his motorcycle, which at least one of my kids has now read as well.
If life is indeed something that happens while you’re making other plans, it’s nice to know you can create some magic along the way.