This memoir is engagingly written, covering the period from Cleary's high-school graduation to the submission of her first manuscript, Henry and Ribsy. I loved Beverly Cleary's books when I was growing up, and her memoir offers some keen observations about the way that growing up on the American West Coast during the 20s and 30s informed her fictional characters. ( )

A great continuation of Beverly Cleary's autobiography. I did again think about how much her mother's actions and behaviors must have marked Mrs. Cleary's life. I appreciated the way the two books built up to the writing of Henry Huggins, and all the ways Mrs. Cleary's life brought her to the point that she was finally able to sit down and write. ( )

Reviewed May 2004

The second book in the life of Beverly Clearly is as good as the first. Her struggles to support herself through college were realistic. I felt for her in feeling overwhelmed. I envy her knowledge of knowing that she wanted to be a children’s librarian with the idea she would write children’s books. Her mother and father surly sacrificed to send her to college. I hope Beverly paid them back in full and arranged for some nice vacations they sure earned it. The story of her mother living through the happiness of her daughter is very sad. If it hadn’t been for the Depression her mom could have gone far. I wish Clearly had continued past her first book a bit farther to show what happened later. She included a lot more of her life than I thought she would and I started getting lost with all the people in her life. Writing her first book seemed easy the way she explained how it was done. She said she struggled, but the first publisher she wrote to took it on the first try. Agatha Christie was rejected 54 times with her first book.

6-2004 ( )