In my grammar school years back in the 1920s I used my ten-cents-a-week allowance for Saturday matinees of Douglas Fairbanks movies. All that swashbuckling and leaping about in the midst of the sails of ships!
BEVERLY CLEARYI was a very observant child. The boys in my books are based on boys in my neighborhood growing up.
More Beverly Cleary Quotes
-
-
I think the best teachers had a real interest in the subject they were teaching and a love for children.
BEVERLY CLEARY -
I didn’t start out writing to give children hope, but I’m glad some of them found it.
BEVERLY CLEARY -
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.
BEVERLY CLEARY -
I read my books aloud before they were published.
BEVERLY CLEARY -
I enjoy writing for third and fourth graders most of all.
BEVERLY CLEARY -
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.
BEVERLY CLEARY -
What interests me is what children go through while growing up.
BEVERLY CLEARY -
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 -
People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don’t really read children’s books.
BEVERLY CLEARY -
My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening. She read mainly travel books.
BEVERLY CLEARY -
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.
BEVERLY CLEARY -
Children want to do what grownups do.
BEVERLY CLEARY -
When 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 CLEARY -
If she can’t spell, why is she a librarian? Librarians should know how to spell.
BEVERLY CLEARY -
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.
BEVERLY CLEARY







