"I read somewhere that many authors who write especially for young people are individuals who have had suffering in their own childhoods ... or known intense loneliness. I believe such suffering while young makes for a deeper, more sensitive person, who can feel the pain and problems of others and put himself or herself into the other person's difficult place. Putting yourself into another person's place, putting on his skin, zipping it up, and trying to think and act as he or she would is what an author does in every book he or she writes."
From Horsewoman to Scholar and Writer
Beatty's family life made a huge shift shortly after this period when, in 1935, she moved from the small coastal towns and outposts into Portland, Oregon. Although initially overwhelmed by a real city and disdainful of her junior high school, Beatty had more luck with high school, where she befriended an English teacher who inspired her to join this profession. She also discovered what she described in her SAAS essay as a "treasure house": the Vernon Branch Library. Beatty continued to read at the blistering pace she'd established earlier, working her way through the children's collection and then right on into the adult section.
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