If she can’t spell, why is she a librarian? Librarians should know how to spell.
BEVERLY CLEARYIf she can’t spell, why is she a librarian? Librarians should know how to spell.
BEVERLY CLEARYWhen I was in the first grade I was afraid of the teacher and had a miserable time in the reading circle, a difficulty that was overcome by the loving patience of my second grade teacher. Even though I could read, I refused to do so.
BEVERLY CLEARYI was a very observant child. The boys in my books are based on boys in my neighborhood growing up.
BEVERLY CLEARYI think the best teachers had a real interest in the subject they were teaching and a love for children.
BEVERLY CLEARYI enjoy writing for third and fourth graders most of all.
BEVERLY CLEARYI 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 CLEARYWriters are good at plucking out what they need here and there.
BEVERLY CLEARYWe 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 CLEARYToday I discovered two kinds of people who go to high school: those who wear new clothes to show off on the first day, and those who wear their oldest clothes to show they think school is unimportant.
BEVERLY CLEARYI am not a pest,” Ramona Quimby told her big sister Beezus.
BEVERLY CLEARYIf 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 CLEARYI read my books aloud before they were published.
BEVERLY CLEARYHe 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 CLEARYOtis 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.
BEVERLY CLEARYShe means well, but she always manages to do the wrong thing. She has a real talent for it.
BEVERLY CLEARYIf you don’t see the book you want on the shelves, write it.
BEVERLY CLEARY