WHO'S NEWS
April 8, 2005
A Conversation With Beverly Cleary
TFK spoke with the beloved author of more than 40 children’s books
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Her most recent honor is that a new boat used to patrol the waterways in Portland, Oregon will be named the 'B. Cleary.' It was the winning name in a contest arranged for the Community Transitional School, a Portland school for at-risk students. Two female students chose the name.
Cleary’s new book, Two Times the Fun, is about 4-year-old twins Jimmy and Janet, who have all kinds of adventures. It’s based on her experiences with her own twins, who are now adults. TFK spoke with Cleary about writing and her books.
TFK: There was no library in Yamhill, Oregon, where you grew up. Is it true that your mother created one?
Cleary: Yes, she had books sent from the State Library. She kept them in a china cabinet in a smoky-smelling room over a bank. She was always enthusiastic about reading.
TFK: You had difficulty learning to read as a child. How and when did you finally grow to love books?
Cleary: I was in the third grade. It was a very dreary, rainy Sunday, before television. I didn’t have anything to do. But my mother always read to me, and kept books around that I might read. I picked one up to look at the pictures and discovered I was reading, and actually enjoying what I read. It wasn’t just something I was doing in school.
TFK: Growing up, what was your favorite children’s book?
Cleary: I was a great reader of fairy tales. My very favorite book is no longer available. It was called Dandelion Cottage. It was about four little girls who were given a run-down cottage to use as a playhouse. They did such a good job fixing it up that somebody rented it!
TFK: Why did you decide to write children’s books, and why do you love it so much?
Cleary: I decided to write children’s books because reading meant so much to me as a child. I enjoy using my imagination. It’s fun to create my own little world.
TFK: How do you come up with plot ideas?
Cleary: Some things are based on my experiences or memory, and some come from my imagination. Sometimes ideas just seem to come out of thin air. That’s the fun of writing—starting something and finding out what turns up.
TFK: Where do you get the inspiration for your characters?
Cleary: My characters come from myself, people I have known, or people I would like to know.
TFK: Ramona Quimby is your best-known character. Why do you think she’s been so popular all these years?
Cleary: Ramona comes out of my own childhood emotions, and I think all children have pretty much the same feelings. Many people have written to me that they could relate to Ramona when they were children.
TFK: These days, there are so many TV programs to distract children. What can kids get from reading books that they can’t get from television?
Cleary: Reading exercises the imagination in a way that television doesn't. It’s all right there on television. But in reading, your imagination creates the pictures. If children don't have imagination, they’re not very interesting people.
TFK: What are the main messages you try to convey through your books?
Cleary: I never try to convey messages. Nothing turns children off like a message! I just write stories that I enjoy writing, and children find in them what they need. So often people ask me what I want to teach in my books. I don't want to teach anything. I want children to be free to learn.
TFK: But you do try to give them characters they can relate to, right?
Cleary: Well, that's who I enjoy writing about—ordinary American children.
TFK: Which of your characters is your favorite?
Cleary: I like them all, or I wouldn’t have written about them! I enjoy Ramona. I also enjoy The Mouse and the Motorcycle, because so many little boys have written to me and said that it was the first book they ever really enjoyed reading.
TFK: Is it a lot easier to write books that girls will enjoy?
Cleary: Yes, that’s one of the reasons I started writing in the first place. When I was a children’s librarian, it was very hard to find books on the shelves for boys. One boy said, 'Where are the books about kids like us?' So when I sat down to write my first book, I thought about those boys and what they might have done if they had lived in my town.
TFK: You write all of your books in longhand. Why don’t you use a computer?
Cleary: I was never a good typist. When I first started writing, I thought that I should write on a typewriter, but I found I was thinking more about my typing than about what I was trying to say. Writing in longhand, I feel the words flow from my brain, down my right arm, and into my fingers. I don’t have a computer. Children are much more computer savvy than I am!
TFK: How do you develop a book from the first draft to the final product?
Cleary: After I finish my first draft, then I go back through it, and I love to cut things. I like to reduce a page to a paragraph. Getting through to the end of the first draft is a little difficult sometimes, but once it’s there, then I can shape the book.
TFK: Are you currently working on any new books?
Cleary: That’s a secret!
TFK: What advice would you give to kids who are having trouble learning to read?
Cleary: Just keep trying! It will all come to you suddenly, as it did with me.
