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If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.

Beverly Cleary

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Beverly Cleary
Age: 104 †
Born: 1916
Born: April 12
Died: 2021
Died: March 25
Author
Autobiographer
Librarian
Writer
McMinnville
Oregon
Beverly Atlee Cleary
Write
Book
Writing
Shelves

More quotes by Beverly Cleary

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Otis was inspired by a boy who sat across the aisle from me in sixth grade. He was a lively person. My best friend appears in assorted books in various disguises.
Beverly Cleary
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He was dressed as if everything he wore had come from different stores or from a rummage sale, except that the crease in his trousers was sharp and his shoes were shined.
Beverly Cleary
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The humiliation that Jane had felt turned to something else--grief perhaps, or regret. Regret that she had not known how to act with a boy, regret that she had not been wiser.
Beverly Cleary
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I am not a pest, Ramona Quimby told her big sister Beezus.
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Problem solving, and I don't mean algebra, seems to be my life's work. Maybe it's everyone's life's work.
Beverly Cleary
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Ramona stepped back into her closet, slid the door shut, pressed an imaginary button, and when her imaginary elevator had made its imaginary descent, stepped out onto the real first floor and raced a real problem. Her mother and father were leaving for Parents' Night.
Beverly Cleary
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I grew up before there were strict leash laws.
Beverly Cleary
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I was a great reader of fairy tales. I tried to read the entire fairy tale section of the library.
Beverly Cleary
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I have lovely memories of Los Angeles in the 1930s. I came down to live with my mother's cousin and they invited me to come and go to junior college for a year.
Beverly Cleary
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I hope children will be happy with the books I've written, and go on to be readers all of their lives.
Beverly Cleary
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Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.
Beverly Cleary
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In seventh grade...I found a place on the [library]shelf where my book would be if I ever wrote a book, which I doubted.
Beverly Cleary
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One rainy Sunday when I was in the third grade, I picked up a book to look at the pictures and discovered that even though I did not want to, I was reading. I have been a reader ever since.
Beverly Cleary
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Neither the mouse nor the boy was the least bit surprised that each could understand the other. Two creatures who shared a love for motorcycles naturally spoke the same language.
Beverly Cleary
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What interests me is what children go through while growing up.
Beverly Cleary
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Today I discovered two kinds of people who go to high school: those who wear new clothes to show off on the first day, and those who wear their oldest clothes to show they think school is unimportant.
Beverly Cleary
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I don't think children's inner feelings have changed. They still want a mother and father in the very same house they want places to play.
Beverly Cleary
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Don't stop now. Go ahead! Be readers all of your lives. And don't forget, librarians and teachers can help you find the right books to read.
Beverly Cleary
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As a child, I disliked books in which children learned to be 'better' children.
Beverly Cleary
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I read my books aloud before they were published.
Beverly Cleary