“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.”
This is a quote by Beverly Cleary on her writing process. She is a
famous children’s book author, with famous books from Ramona to Petey’s Bedtime
Story. Beverly Cleary was always surrounded by books and the importance of
reading. Beverly Cleary was born Beverly Bunn in Oregon and grew up on a farm
in Yamhill. The town had no library; so her mother made it a point to have it arranged
to have books sent to Yamhill for the children.
Beverly
started primary school in Portland, Oregon. She had difficulty with school
until third grade. Once she dominated reading, she could not stop. She was
constantly going to the library and finding new books. The library was
constantly seeing Beverly and knew her love for reading and told her when she
grows up she should write books for children, this changed Beverly life and
impacted her greatly. After school, Beverly attended junior college in Ontario,
California and University of California. After graduation Beverly worked as a
librarian in Washington until she married Clarence Cleary and moved to
California 1940. Beverly and Clarence had twins, a song and daughter. 1950 was
when Beverly’s fist book was published, Henry
Huggins.
In Beverly’s writing process, she often took the surrounding
around her to create her characters. She wrote stories about Mitch and Amy, who
were twins, just like hers. She also created the characters Henry, Beezus, and
Ramona living on the same street she grew up on as a little girl. Beverly won
many awards; in 1978 Ramona and Her
Father won the Newbery Honor Book (her first book to won an award), Dear
Mr. Henshaw, Ramona Quimby, Age 8 also won awards. Cleary also won the
Everychild Award, Regina Medal, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award Catholic
Library Associations. Her book Ramona and Beezus was just turned into a major
motion picture in 2010.
Beverly Clearly just celebrated her 96th birthday
on April 12th.
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