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I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.

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
Wanted
Mind
Ballerina
Changed

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I write in longhand on yellow legal pads.
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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.
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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.
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Quite often somebody will say, What year do your books take place? and the only answer I can give is, In childhood.
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My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening. She read mainly travel books.
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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.
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Children want to do what grownups do.
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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.
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I am not a pest, Ramona Quimby told her big sister Beezus.
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I was an only child I didn't have a sister, or sisters.
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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.
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I grew up before there were strict leash laws.
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People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don't really read children's books.
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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.
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Writers are good at plucking out what they need here and there.
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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.
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I was a very observant child. The boys in my books are based on boys in my neighborhood growing up.
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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.
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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.
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I read my books aloud before they were published.
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