Editing Beverly Cleary (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Beverly Cleary 1938.jpg|thumb|left|160px|Cleary as a senior at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], 1938]]
Beverly Atlee Bunn was born on April 12, 1916, in [[McMinnville, Oregon]],<ref name=biocom>{{cite web|url=http://www.biography.com/people/beverly-cleary-040616|work=Biography.com|publisher=[[The Biography Channel]]|title=Beverly Cleary|access-date=May 1, 2017}}</ref> to Chester Lloyd Bunn, a farmer, and Mable Atlee Bunn, a schoolteacher.<ref name="scholastic" /> Cleary was an only child<ref name=paul>{{cite news|last=Paul|first=Pamela|title=The Ageless Appeal of Beverly Cleary|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/books/review/profile-of-beverly-cleary.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date= April 8, 2011|access-date=April 3, 2016}}</ref> and lived on a farm in rural [[Yamhill, Oregon]], in her early childhood.<ref name=gibbs>{{cite web|last=Gibbs|first=Hope Katz|date=April 2010|url=http://hopegibbs.com/article/434/beverly-cleary-s-world-the-costco-connection|title=Bevery Cleary's World: Author Spotlight (reprinted from April 2010)|publisher=The Costco Connection|page=37|access-date=April 7, 2013|archive-date=January 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190111175617/https://hopegibbs.com/article/434/beverly-cleary-s-world-the-costco-connection|url-status=dead}}</ref> She was raised [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2012/06/the_writing_roots_of_a_yamhill.html|work=The Oregonian|title=The writing roots of a Yamhill girl: Essay on Beverly Cleary|access-date=December 29, 2016|date=June 9, 2012}}</ref> When she was six years old, her family moved to [[Portland, Oregon]],{{r|scholastic}} where her father had secured a job as a bank security officer.<ref name=biocom/>

The adjustment from living in the country to the city was difficult for Cleary, and she struggled in school; in first grade, her teacher placed her in a group for struggling readers.{{r|scholastic}}<ref name=ulin>{{citation|last=Ulin|first=David L|title=Beverly Cleary's 'exceptionally happy career'|url=https://www.latimes.com/books/la-xpm-2011-apr-17-la-ca-beverly-cleary-20110417-story.html|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=April 17, 2011|access-date=April 3, 2016}}</ref>{{efn|Cleary blamed her struggles on [[chickenpox]], [[smallpox]], [[tonsillitis]], a teacher who "snapp[ed] a steel-tipped pointer across the back of her hands<!-- as per mos:lq as source did not include ',' -->", and a [[basal reader|reader]] that she described as an "incredibly stupid" book.{{r|ulin}}<ref name="obit.chicagotribune">{{Cite web|last=Italie|first=Hillel|title=Beverly Cleary, beloved children's author, dies at 104|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-aud-nw-beverly-cleary-author-dead-20210326-fofihgmvwzbwdpm2kh24p3xfua-story.html|access-date=March 29, 2021|website=Chicago Tribune|date=March 26, 2021 }}</ref>}} Cleary said, "The first grade was sorted into three reading groups—Bluebirds, Redbirds<!-- no comma in source --> and Blackbirds. I was a Blackbird. To be a Blackbird was to be disgraced. I wanted to read, but somehow could not."<ref name="shepherd-hayes">{{cite book|last=Shepherd-Hayes|first=Deborah|title=A Guide for Using The Mouse and the Motorcycle in the Classroom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rocOM4KIy6EC&pg=PA6|year=1996|publisher=Teacher Created Resources|isbn=978-1-557-34529-5}}</ref>

With some work, Cleary's reading skills improved, but she eventually found reading boring, complaining that many stories were simple and unsurprising, and wondering why authors often did not write with humor or about ordinary people.{{r|shepherd-hayes}} However, on a rainy afternoon at home during Cleary's third-grade year, she found herself enjoying reading ''[[The Dutch Twins]]'', a book by [[Lucy Fitch Perkins]] about the adventures of ordinary children.<ref name="encyclopedia">{{Cite web|title=Beverly Cleary {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/beverly-cleary|access-date=March 29, 2021|website=Encyclopedia.com}}</ref>{{r|paul|washingtonpost|obit.washingtonpost}} The book was an [[epiphany (feeling)|epiphany]] for her, and afterward, she started to spend a lot of time reading and at the library.{{r|encyclopedia|washington.columns|scholastic}} By sixth grade, a teacher suggested that Cleary should become a children's writer based on essays she had written for class assignments.<ref name=ulin/>

After graduating from Portland's [[Grant High School (Portland, Oregon)|Grant High School]] in 1934,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/07/a-beverly-cleary-pilgrimage-from-yamhill-to-klickitat-street/241470/|work=[[The Atlantic]]|title=A Beverly Cleary Pilgrimage, From Yamhill to Klickitat Street|author=Brown, Rachael|date=June 6, 2011|access-date=May 1, 2017}}</ref><ref name="washington.columns">{{Cite web|title=September 2008 Columns Magazine Feature: Beverly Cleary: Kids Like Us|url=https://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/sept08/cleary.html|access-date=March 26, 2021|website=washington.edu}}</ref> Cleary entered [[Chaffey College|Chaffey Junior College]] in [[Ontario<!-- campus in alta loma was not opened until 1960 -->, California]],{{r|scholastic|washington.columns|obit.nytimes}} which offered lower tuition fees than four-year universities, something many students needed during the [[Great Depression]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/junior-college|title=Junior college|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=May 2, 2023 }}</ref> with aspirations of becoming a children's librarian.{{r|berkeley}} After two years at Chaffey, she was accepted to the [[University of California, Berkeley]], where she earned a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree in English in 1938.{{r|shepherd-hayes}} While in college, Cleary worked odd jobs to pay her tuition, including working as a seamstress and a [[maid|chambermaid]].<ref name=chung/> During what Cleary described as "two of the most interesting years of my life<!-- as per mos:lq as source did not include ',' -->", she was one of the first residents of women's<!-- later co-ed --> [[student housing cooperative|cooperative]] [[Stebbins Hall]], and met her future husband, Clarence Cleary, at a school dance<!-- story of meeting during a sandwich break at stebbins hall does not appear to have any reliable sources -->.<ref name="berkeley.cleary">{{Cite web|url=https://www.berkeley.edu/news/magazine/summer_96/departments/looking/looking.html|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20210330024909/https://www.berkeley.edu/news/magazine/summer_96/departments/looking/looking.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 30, 2021|title=May 1997 – Looking Back|website=berkeley.edu|access-date=March 30, 2021}}</ref><ref name=berkeley>{{citation|last=Harmanci|first=Reyhan|title=Extraordinarily Ordinary: Beverly Cleary Still Making Magic for Young Readers|url=http://alumni.berkeley.edu/news/california-magazine/summer-2010-shelf-life/extraordinarily-ordinary|access-date=April 3, 2016|newspaper=California Magazine|date=Summer 2010|archive-date=July 14, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714051637/http://alumni.berkeley.edu/news/california-magazine/summer-2010-shelf-life/extraordinarily-ordinary|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1939, she graduated from the [[University of Washington Information School|School of Librarianship<!-- name at the time -->]] at the [[University of Washington]] with a second bachelor's degree in [[library science]]<ref name="obit.washingtonpost">{{Cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Harrison |last2=Krystal |first2=Becky |date=March 26, 2020 |title=Beverly Cleary, beloved author who chronicled schoolyard scrapes and feisty kids, dies at 104 |language=en-US |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/beverly-cleary-dead/2021/03/26/afee8588-0aed-11e6-a6b6-2e6de3695b0e_story.html |access-date=March 26, 2020 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref>{{r|scholastic}}<ref name="obit.uw">{{Cite web|first=Doug|last=Parry|date=March 26, 2021|title=Beloved author Beverly Cleary, '39, passes away|url=https://ischool.uw.edu/news/2021/03/beloved-author-beverly-cleary-39-passes-away|access-date=March 29, 2021|website=Information School, University of Washington}}</ref> and accepted a year-long position as a children's librarian in [[Yakima, Washington]]. Her parents disapproved of her relationship with Cleary, a [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]], so the couple eloped and were married in 1940.<ref name=berkeley/><ref name = "EduPaper">{{cite journal|title=Cleary, Beverly Bio|website=edupaperback.org|url=http://www.edupaperback.org/page-864519|publisher=Educational Book and Media Association}}</ref> After World War II, they settled in [[Carmel-by-the-Sea, California]].<ref name = "EduPaper" /><ref name=bowman>{{citation|last=Bowman|first=John S.|title=Beverly Cleary|url=http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Beverly+Cleary|website=The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1995|access-date=April 4, 2016}}</ref>  In 1955, Cleary gave birth to twins, Malcolm and Marianne.<ref name="berkeley" /> She lived in [[Carmel Valley Village, California|Carmel Valley Village]] in California from the 1960s onwards.<ref name="encyclopedia" />