Even Beverly Cleary superfans might not know all of these. I didn't!

At mental_floss: 12 Charming Tidbits About Beverly Cleary

There's a lot to love there (I didn't know that she eloped! Or that she wrote Leave it to Beaver tie-ins.), but I especially liked this bit:

WHEN ASKED “WHY DO YOU THINK THAT CHILDREN LOVE RAMONA QUIMBY SO MUCH?” SHE GAVE THIS WONDERFUL ANSWER:

“Because [Ramona] does not learn to be a better girl. I was so annoyed with the books in my childhood, because children always learned to be ‘better’ children and, in my experience, they didn’t. They just grew, and so I started Ramona… and she has never reformed. [She’s] really not a naughty child, in spite of the title Ramona the Pest. Her intentions are good, but she has a lot of imagination, and things sometimes don’t turn out the way she expected.”

I really need to read her memoirs.