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I grew up before there were strict leash laws.

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

Book Chance Reading
Today 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 CLEARY

School Thinking Two
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!
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School Ships Years
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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Book Boys Friendship
I grew up before there were strict leash laws.
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Before Grew Law Strict
I hope children will be happy with the books I’ve written, and go on to be readers all of their lives.
BEVERLY CLEARY

Children Happy Hope Readers
I don’t ever go on the Internet. I don’t even know how it works.
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Goes Internet Know Works
My mother would read aloud to my father and me in the evening. She read mainly travel books.
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Book Father Mother
I was a great reader of fairy tales. I tried to read the entire fairy tale section of the library.
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Fairy Tales Great Library
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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Boys Grief Humilation Perhaps Regret Turned
I was a very observant child. The boys in my books are based on boys in my neighborhood growing up.
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Book Children Grow Up
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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Book Helping Teacher
All knowledge is valuable to a librarian.
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Knowledge Librarian Valuable
I read my books aloud before they were published.
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Books Publisher Read
I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.
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Ballerina Changed Mind
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.
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Book Library Seventh
We 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.
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Father Mother People
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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Algebra Mean Problem
Didn’t the people who made those license plates care about little girls named Ramona?
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Care Girl People
If you don’t see the book you want on the shelves, write it.
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Book Want Writing
I am not a pest,” Ramona Quimby told her big sister Beezus.
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Big Bigs Pests Sister
People are usually surprised to hear this, but I don’t really read children’s books.
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Books Children People
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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Patience Reading Teacher
As a child, I disliked books in which children learned to be ‘better’ children.
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Book Child Children
The key to writing successful YA is to keep the adults out of the story as much as possible.
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Keys Successful Writing
I feel sometimes that in children’s books there are more and more grim problems, but I don’t know that I want to burden third- and fourth-graders with them.
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Book Children Want
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.
BEVERLY CLEARY

Burton Father Imagination Mother Real Step

I grew up before there were strict leash laws.

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I grew up before there were strict leash laws.

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