Theme 4: Person to Person

Meet the Author

Although her books have been enjoyed by generations of kids, Beverly Cleary herself didn't enjoy reading as a child — at least not at first. In first grade she was grouped with the slowest readers in her class. By second grade, she says, "although I could read if I wanted to, I no longer wanted to. Reading was not fun. It was boring. Most of the stories were simplified versions of folktales that had been read aloud to me many times. There were no surprises left."