Quote

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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Beverly Cleary
Age: 104 †
Born: 1916
Born: April 12
Died: 2021
Died: March 25
Author
Autobiographer
Librarian
Writer
McMinnville
Oregon
Beverly Atlee Cleary
Writing
Books
Dictionary
Practice
Distracted
Word
List
Reading
Lists
Interesting
Favorite
Slows
Use
Changing
Spelled
Also
Constantly
Practise
Book
Constant
Remained

More quotes by 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.
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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.
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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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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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As a child, I disliked books in which children learned to be 'better' children.
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Writers are good at plucking out what they need here and there.
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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.
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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.
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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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The key to writing successful YA is to keep the adults out of the story as much as possible.
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People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don't really read children's 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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I grew up before there were strict leash laws.
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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.
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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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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.
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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 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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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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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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