Died at 104

One of my favorite authors. I believe she wrote her first book in her 40s (in the 1950s) and continued until the late 90s . Read her as a kid, and read her out loud to my kids. Her books still hold up well, just simple stories about being a kid.

I'm betting she used the words exasperated and indignant more than any other author.

Mouse and the Motorcycle Benny loved. We probably read it three times before he moved on to other things

My girls are 9 now. Last summer we drove to Gulf Shores, AL and listened to several Ramona books there and back (Stockard Channing killing it as Ramona).

In Beezus and Ramona and Ramona Quimby Age 8, I heard memories from books I read so many times but it had been so long I had forgotten them, but they came back to me like warm sunshine on a summer day and filled me with crazy happiness - Ramona tagging along with Beezus to her art class and drawing the invisible dog, the two of them protesting against eating tongue for dinner and then being forced to make dinner the next night all by themselves, and the big night out at the local burger joint when the old man pays for their dinner anonymously because he thinks they look like a nice family.

I'm not sure there's a better feeling in the world than being reminded of something you loved so fervently as a kid but had since slipped from your memory. Like The Lorax and Schoolhouse Rock, Ms. Cleary's books are that special niche of childhood that still rings so clear to me all these years later.