In seventh grade…I found a place on the [library]shelf where my book would be if I ever wrote a book, which I doubted.
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.
More Beverly Cleary Quotes
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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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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.
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I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.
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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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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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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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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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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 just wrote about childhood as I had known it.
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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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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.
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All knowledge is valuable to a librarian.
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Writers are good at plucking out what they need here and there.
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I think the best teachers had a real interest in the subject they were teaching and a love for children.
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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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