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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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Beverly Cleary
Age: 104 †
Born: 1916
Born: April 12
Died: 2021
Died: March 25
Author
Autobiographer
Librarian
Writer
McMinnville
Oregon
Beverly Atlee Cleary
Teacher
Reading
Read
Geography
Book
Hide
Sometimes
Ahead
Work
Finished
Would
Behinds
Behind

More quotes by 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.
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I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.
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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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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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Children want to do what grownups do.
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I read my books aloud before they were published.
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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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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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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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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 grew up before there were strict leash laws.
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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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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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People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don't really read children's books.
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If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.
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I am not a pest, Ramona Quimby told her big sister Beezus.
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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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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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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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