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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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Beverly Cleary
Age: 104 †
Born: 1916
Born: April 12
Died: 2021
Died: March 25
Author
Autobiographer
Librarian
Writer
McMinnville
Oregon
Beverly Atlee Cleary
Successful
Possible
Story
Keep
Stories
Writing
Much
Adults
Keys

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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I grew up before there were strict leash laws.
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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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Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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I was an only child I didn't have a sister, or sisters.
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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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As a child, I disliked books in which children learned to be 'better' children.
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Children want to do what grownups do.
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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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My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening. She read mainly travel books.
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What interests me is what children go through while growing up.
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