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Jan 11, 2008

Heidi rated it:

I am a big fan of children’s literature and have always love Beverly Cleary’s books from the time I was a young child, so it was fun to read about her life and how it came about that she wrote children’s books and where she found many of her ideas for her stories. An added dimension was the fact that she was working to educate herself during the depression and with the added burden of a mother who wasn’t exactly supportive of her efforts in education or her social life.

Funny enough I More...

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May 12, 2008

Toni rated it:

For those who remember reading Beverly Cleary's books, this second memoir of Cleary's is fairly absorbing. As a high school graduate, Cleary escaped her extremely over protective, fairly neurotic mother and the gray skies of Portland, Oregon to attend college in sunny California. She relates her experiences going to school in the depression era 30's, her classes, friends, and meeting her future husband, Clarence Cleary. After graduation her desire to become a childrens' librarian takes her to Ya More...

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Apr 21, 2011

Kristen rated it:

A continuation of her previous memoir, "My Own Two Feet" picks up where "A Girl from Yamhill" ended, with young Beverly on a bus headed to California. Her sadness at leaving home is quickly replaced by excitement about her new life. She has arranged to live with her aunt, uncle and cousins, and is amazed at how much more relaxed and free their household is than her own. The college she's headed to was chosen for it's waiver of out-of-state tuition. It's affordable and, she fi More...

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Nov 22, 2009

Kirei rated it:

I read "A Girl From Yamhill" which is her first biography, and loved it. So I was excited to read this second book about Beverly Cleary's life.

I loved it, but I think it is only for diehard Cleary fans, or people really interested in the life of a young woman during the thirties and early forties. She goes into quite a bit of detail about her college days (how did she remember it all?) She is such a good girl that there is not a lot of suspense, but the second half of th More...

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Jun 04, 2009

Karen rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Dec 14, 2009

Bonnie rated it:

Since many of my elementary school years were spent sprawled out next to public library windows reading and rereading each and every Ramona book, I was intensely thrilled to discover this book on Amazon a year and a half ago and bought it immediately. "My Own Two Feet" details Beverly Cleary's life while attending college, escaping her family's negativity about her choices in life, deciding upon a career and attending library school, meeting and marrying her husband, and embarking upon More...

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Jan 15, 2012

Lydia rated it:

I enjoyed reading this story probably more than most because I knew many of the places Mrs. Cleary talked about. I also went to Cal and just this last summer went on a tour of the University of Washington and saw the humongous library she described.

It's so interesting to read about college during the Depression and how different it all was that many years ago. That professors graded so randomly, even based on how interested she looked during lectures, astounded me. Several times C More...

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Dec 01, 2011

Karina rated it:

Beverly Cleary writes about her days from exiting college to writing her first book. There were times when she struggled because her grades weren't perfect. She worked as a school librarian during her college years and a little after. She struggled to write her first book even but eventually fought through all of the trials and tribulations to become one of the most famous authors of children literature.
Intermediate and advanced children should read this novel. It wouldn't be difficult for More...

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Jan 14, 2012

Beth rated it:

I picked this up since I just read Ramona the Pest aloud to the boys a few months ago. At first I thought this was kind of a charming little story -- Beverly Cleary's reminisces about community college and university, dating and courtship in the Depression era. But by about halfway through I found myself annoyed (there were complaints about everything from her mother's controlling nature to the difficulty of her courses and exams to dust on library books) and bored (every uninteresting detail More...

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Dec 29, 2011

Dawn rated it:

It is somehow reassuring to learn that Beverly Cleary didn't have a particularly good relationship with her mother either.

For those of us who learned to love books at the foot of the C shelf in the children's library, this is a welcome find. I haven't yet read the first of the two autobiographies, but I'll be circling back for it.

She's given us a fairly absorbing picture of her life as a young woman getting started in life during the 30's and 40's. Being a "good gi More...

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Apr 07, 2010

Caren rated it:

The famous children's book author, Beverly Cleary, continues her memoirs in this second volume. She begins with her years at a junior college in California, continues with the two years she spent at Univ. of California-Berkeley, where she completed her undergraduate degree, and with her year in library school at the University of Washington. If you are a librarian, you will be fascinated by the chapters on library school and her first experiences as a children's librarian. She also met her futur More...

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Aug 09, 2007

sarah rated it:

aw, she was a kids' librarian! and she seems like such a sweetheart. i love that she started writing books because she didn't see "real" kids portrayed in kids' literature of the time.

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Feb 05, 2008

Muriel rated it:

Really fun to read, it shows how much Beverly Cleary's stories are modeled after her own life. You will even see her descriptions of real places played out in her stories!

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Dec 18, 2011

Carin rated it:

Wow, I didn't think this would happen but I actually loved My Own Two Feet even more than A Girl From Yamhill! And it's very well titled as Beverly is trying very, very hard through the whole book to get out from under her mother's thumb.

The book starts just where Yamhill left off, with Beverly heading off to Southern California to stay with her aunt and attend junior college. Naturally, her mother is sure this will be a disaster but Beverly goes anyway. She has a good time and gets More...

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Oct 08, 2011

Megan rated it:

I have read and reread Beverly Cleary's first memoir, A Girl from Yamhill half a dozen times and never even new she had a second memoir until a few years ago when I found this book at Powell's Books. I have been holding onto it since then and finally read it as I have decidedly on a huge memoir kick right now.

My Own Two Feet, follows Cleary after she graduates high school, attends college all the way up to the publishing of her first book. I found this book immensely interesting. It More...

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Aug 13, 2010

Jelinas rated it:

My dear friend Minna (mother to my buddy JN, the one who always lets me borrow his books) let me borrow this book along with The Luckiest Girl. She loved it and was certain that I would, too.

Being the anal reader I am, I had to read A Girl from Yamhill first. But, after having read My Own Two Feet, I have to say that I think it can stand alone without having to read Beverly Cleary's account of her early life.

</i>My Own Two Feet</i> picks up where A Girl from Y More...

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Feb 03, 2010

Lisa rated it:

I adored Cleary's earlier memoir, A Girl from Yamhill, and was thrilled to find she'd written a sequel. In some ways I loved this book even more: as a native Californian who has lived in both the Bay Area and LA, and a Berkeley alum, I enjoyed her descriptions of these places. I also had fun reading about her relatively smooth path to published authorhood. It was a different age, I know, but it's still nice to know some people don't have to suffer years of writerly misery just to get books out i More...

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Jun 14, 2011

Anne rated it:

This second part of Cleary's autobiography was far more interesting than the first, mostly because it begins with the author moving to CA for college and ends when she has sold her first book. Whereas the first book featured Cleary's controlling mother, in this sage, Cleary comes into her own as an increasingly-independent young woman who makes her own choices. The last chapter focuses (finally!)on her writing.

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Mar 07, 2011

Zoe rated it:

I am reading everything I can find on Beverly Cleary so I can accurately portray her at the Sunnyside Women's History event. This book was just as engaging as the first installment of her memoirs, and gave a good picture of depression and post-depression era life for an American college girl. One thing I noticed for sure: Cleary avoids all politics in her writing. That's why I gave her only 3 stars.

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Jan 21, 2010

Rose Ann rated it:

I loved this author when I was a girl and was delighted to find this memoir on the shelf on the library one day. Highly recommended to everyone who loved "Henry Huggins" and "Henry and Ribsy" and "Ellen Tebbits." (Hey, remember when Ellen and her friend had their mother make them matching dresses out of the "monkey" fabric?)

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Jul 24, 2011

Alison rated it:

An interesting enough story, but not one that really grabs you. The part I enjoyed most was reading about how an average person lived through the depression and WWII. Her writing style is suited for pleasant children's books, but it seemed that there was more to the pleasant life story than she actually wrote.

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Oct 28, 2009

Nathan rated it:

Cleary just runs out of steam in the second part of her memoirs. There is no plot, just a straight recording of events, none of which are terribly interesting or memorable. Towards the end, there is a flicker of appeal as she alludes to the creation of Henry Huggins, but it comes as too little, far too late. Boring.

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Dec 13, 2011

Janis rated it:

In this, part 2 of Beverly Cleary's memoir, she writes of her college years, early married life, and her emergence as the author of beloved children's stories. I enjoyed learning more about her life but this book pales in comparison to the delightful account of her childhood, A Girl from Yamhill.

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May 26, 2010

Sara rated it:

I'm a huge fan so this was really fun to read. She writes so differently when she writes about herself, which I thought was interesting. Also interesting to read about her struggle to get through college (financially) and just about being a young woman in a very different time.

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Jul 28, 2009

Callie rated it:

I should have read the one about her childhood. This one felt like a duty, like she wrote the first one and it did really well, so she wrote the second one b/c her publisher pushed her to do it. It was an easy read so I finished it.

BUT I will always LOVE Ramona!!!!!!!

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May 05, 2011

Renee rated it:

It was interesting to read about Cleary's experiences in college and her conflict with her parents, particularly her mother, but I was disappointed that the memoir ends with the publication of her first book, with only about those last 15 pages discussing her writing career. While I enjoyed the rest of the book, I would have liked it to go a little farther in time and hear more about how her life and career developed and changed after that first book was published.

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Sep 15, 2011

Audra rated it:

Picked up after she left for college in the frist book. Loved reading this one two. Talks about her struggles getting through college, dating, starting a career as a librarian during the war, and beginning her career as a children's author. Fun read.

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Apr 26, 2009

Bitsy rated it:

This book begins where "Girl from Yamhill" left off (when she leaves for college). Kind of a boring read, but I enjoy Beverly Cleary so much that I just had to find out how she came to write the first of her many books (the last chapter)!

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Feb 23, 2009

Beth A. rated it:

I really enjoyed this mellow book about Beverly Cleary’s college days. She shares her financial struggles, and tells about her classes and friends. She tells us how she met her husband Clarence Cleary. She becomes a librarian, also a difficult process, and becomes aware of the need for books of “kids like us” (especially for young boys). After struggling for years to get started, and with a bit of encouragement she starts- with Henry Huggins. (I’ve only read the Ramona books. I will have to cha More...

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Nov 29, 2011

Mutant rated it:

Such an easy and pretty read. So many of her stories sound like fairytales. It seems like she lived in another world, not merely a different time. Very touching story and made me quite pensive. Thanks Beverly! Always loved your books :)

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