I finally read the second book of Beverly Cleary’s autobiography, which covers her life after High School. The first book, A Girl from Yamhill covers the years from birth to High School Graduation. Beverly Cleary is one of my favorite authors and I was excited to read more about her life after she left home. 
Beverly’s life was filled with grueling realities during the depression. Scraping the bottom of the barrel to find enough money to attend college and then, once graduated, trying to find a job, when so few were to be had. The amount of work that she put into college and some of the ridiculous expectations were fun to learn about. In order to graduate from junior college she had to compose an original tap dance. Refusing would have cost her her diploma. Thank goodness we don’t have rules like that anymore!
Beverly is a great inspiration for the things we can accomplish when we pick a path and work hard to get across the finish line. Beverly has done so many amazing things in her life working as a librarian and in book stores and finally in creating wonderful stories that speak to the mischievous little stinkers inside each of us. I enjoyed the pictures sprinkled throughout the book. Beverly Cleary is one of my literary heroes! I highly recommend this for older (as in middle school and above) fans of Cleary’s.
Ooh, I love Cleary too! I will definitely need to pick up her bio.
True stories are always the best – especially when they involve people we’ve always admired. Sounds like a goodie!
Violet ( http://bookbrew.wordpress.com )
True stories are always the best – especially when they involve people we’ve always admired. Sounds like a goodie!
Violet ( http://bookbrew.wordpress.com )
Melissa- Oops! I forgot to mention in my review the name of the first half of Cleary’s biography. I fixed it. So, when you read it- don’t forget to start with the first book.
Violetnesdoly- Try reading the bio at the same time as reading Ramona the Pest. It’s a great combination! Cleary really knows how to make you laugh- something we can all use a great deal of these days.
I dont usually care to make posts on peoples sites, but this was really a good post. Keep it up
I dont usually care to make posts on peoples sites, but this was really a good post. Keep it up
Enoch- Thanks for stopping by!