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People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don't really read children's books.

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
People
Surprised
Usually
Hear
Books
Read
Book
Children
Really

More quotes by Beverly Cleary

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My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening. She read mainly travel books.
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.
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My favorite books are a constantly changing list, but one favorite has remained constant: the dictionary. Is the word I want to use spelled practice or practise? The dictionary knows. The dictionary also slows down my writing because it is such interesting reading that I am distracted.
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.
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What interests me is what children go through while growing up.
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 want to do what grownups do.
Beverly Cleary
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With twins, reading aloud to them was the only chance I could get to sit down. I read them picture books until they were reading on their own.
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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The key to writing successful YA is to keep the adults out of the story as much as possible.
Beverly Cleary
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If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.
Beverly Cleary
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If we finished our work, the teacher would say, 'Now don't read ahead.' But sometimes I hid the book I was reading behind my geography book and did read ahead. You can hide a lot behind a geography book.
Beverly Cleary
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I grew up before there were strict leash laws.
Beverly Cleary
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I was a very observant child. The boys in my books are based on boys in my neighborhood growing up.
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 am not a pest, Ramona Quimby told her big sister Beezus.
Beverly Cleary
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We didn't have television in those days, and many people didn't even have radios. My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening.
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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Writers are good at plucking out what they need here and there.
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