Quotes from Beverly Cleary

And Don't Miss Beverly Cleary's Autobiography

Her age was difficult too- not old enough to sit down with her mother and sew something she wanted to sew and too old to go pulling out a whole box of Kleenex and flinging it all over the house like Willa Jean. People should not think being seven-and-a-half was easy because it wasn't

and we could see how it works out.

elevator and a buzzer that opened the front

She felt all churned up inside, as if she didn't know whether to cry or burst out of the house shouting, My mother and father had a fight!

Mrs. Quimby had heard. "Ramona, do you want to go to your room?

Golly, Mom, I didn't do anything. I just brought my dog home on the bus like you said.

Come on, Ribsy. Come on, Ribs, old boy. I'm going to call you Ribsy because you're so thin.

Honestly, Henry, sometimes I wonder how you get into these things.

Maybe all boys were exasperating. Maybe this was one of the fundamental truths of life her father was always telling her she had so much to learn about.

Maybe grown-ups weren't perfect, but they should be, her parents most of all. They should be cheerful, loving, patient, never sick and never tired. Fun too.

There was nothing more to say. Her happy plan had come to nothing.

On Friday's, however, they walked home the long way round past the Rose City Drugstore, the Supermarket, the Ideal Barber Shop, and the Lucky Dog Pet Shop. At the pet store they stopped while Henry bought two pounds of horse meat from Mr. Pennycuff.

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So, Henry and his mother and father bent and pounced together. Henry felt a little uncomfortable to see his mother catching worms, but he was very, very glad when the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five worm was put in the jar. He took his jars of worms to Mr. Grumbie, who paid him thirteen dollars and thirty-five cents.

did when her hair was washed. When Mother finished she

Nobody understood what is was like to be six-years-old and the littlest in the family.

Willa Jean did not feel she was beautiful because she was a healthy child. She felt beautiful like a grown-up lady on TV.

Pest was a fighting word to Ramona, because it was unfair. She was not a pest, at least not all the time. She was only littler than everyone else in the family, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not catch up.

What will we bury him in?" she asked, struggling with another shovelful of wet dirt.

It should have been enough. He should have been content to stay home without venturing out into the world looking for speed and excitement. Outside in the hall Ralph heard

Ramona was not interested in tools or thinking things over and figuring things out. She was interested in results. Fast.

Oh," was all Henry could find to say.

Beezus and Ramona defended their possessions from Willa Jean. This is what - called playing with Willa Jean.