¹     According to the book title, Ramona may be a pest, but she sure is funny! Beverly Cleary is the author who created Ramona. She also created Ramona's family and friends as well many other much-loved characters.
 
²     Mrs. Cleary was born in 1916. She lived on a farm in a very small town. McMinnville, Oregon was so small that it didn't even have a library. Her mother, Mrs. Bunn, however, decided to create one. She wrote to the state library and asked them to send some books to McMinnville. Then she took those books and placed them in an old lodge room. This tiny room above a bank became the town's first library.
 
³     When she was six, her family moved to Portland, Oregon. In Portland, school was hard. Beverly was part of the lowest reading group. Looking back, Mrs. Cleary thinks that reading was hard, in part, because it wasn't very fun. Most of the books that her teacher gave her were boring. One day she found a book that she liked. It was called The Dutch Twins. After reading this book, she was hooked! She read all of the time. She also began writing stories. By the third grade, Beverly had caught up with her classmates. Her love for books continued to grow. She spent most of her free time in the library or walking with an armful of books there or home.

Paragraphs 4 to 6:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable