If you don’t see the book you want on the shelves, write it.
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
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I had a very wise mother. She always kept books that were my grade level in our house.
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I enjoy writing for third and fourth graders most of all.
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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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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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She was not a slowpoke grownup. She was a girl who could not wait. Life was so interesting she had to find out what happened next.
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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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Didn’t the people who made those license plates care about little girls named Ramona?
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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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I was an only child; I didn’t have a sister, or sisters.
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I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.
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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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As a child, I disliked books in which children learned to be ‘better’ children.
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I don’t necessarily start with the beginning of the book. I just start with the part of the story that’s most vivid in my imagination and work forward and backward from there.
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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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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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