Mem Fox Quotes

• The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading. It isn’t achieved by the book alone, nor by the child alone, nor by the adult who’s reading aloud—it’s the relationship winding between all three, bringing them together in easy harmony.

  Mem Fox

  Inspirational, Children, Reading

  110 Copy quote

• Reading aloud and talking about what we're reading sharpens children's brains. It helps develop their ability to concentrate at length, to solve problems logically, and to express themselves more easily and clearly.

  Mem Fox

  Children, Reading, Talking

  69 Copy quote

• Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they’re four years old, they’re usually among the best readers by the time they’re eight.

  Mem Fox

  Children, Heart, Eight

  78 Copy quote

• When I say to a parent, "read to a child", I don't want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate.

  Mem Fox

  Children, Reading, Medicine

  78 Copy quote

• The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading.

  Mem Fox

  Children, Book, Reading

  64 Copy quote

• If every parent understood the huge educational benefits and intense happiness brought about by reading aloud to their children, and if every parent- and every adult caring for a child-read aloud a minimum of three stories a day to the children in our lives, we could probably wipe out illiteracy within one generation.

  Mem Fox

  Children, Educational, Reading

  55 Copy quote

• If we are always reading aloud something that is more difficult than children can read themselves then when they come to that book later, or books like that, they will be able to read them - which is why even a fifth grade teacher, even a tenth grade teacher, should still be reading to children aloud. There is always something that is too intractable for kids to read on their own.

  Mem Fox

  Teacher, Children, Reading

  45 Copy quote

• Books don't harm kids; they arm them.

  Mem Fox

  Book, Kids, Arms

  23 Copy quote

• The fastest way to teach a child to read is to teach them to write.

  Mem Fox

  Children, Writing, Way

  26 Copy quote

• You're not lonely when you're teaching, you're not quiet, you're laughing most of the time, you're having a wonderful time interacting with young people. It's the best fun in the world.

  Mem Fox

  Lonely, Fun, Teaching

  23 Copy quote

• If you are not a writer, you will not understand the difficulties of writing. If you are not a writer, you will not know the fears and hopes of the writers you teach.

  Mem Fox

  Writing, Teach, Difficulty

  24 Copy quote

• You experience other cultures to give you a kind of shock that makes you look at your own culture. You appreciate it more as a result of being out of it, but you also realise there are some things lacking in your culture.

  Mem Fox

  Other Cultures, Appreciate, Giving

  22 Copy quote

• As everyone knows, nothing is sweeter than tiny baby fingers and chubby baby toes.

  Mem Fox

  Baby, Tiny, Toes

  11 Copy quote

• I realized with grief that purposeless activities in language arts are probably the burial grounds of language development and that coffins can be found in most classrooms, including mine.

  Mem Fox

  Education, Art, Grief

  17 Copy quote

• Writing a picture book is like writing 'War and Peace' in Haiku.

  Mem Fox

  War, Book, Writing

  8 Copy quote

• I think that my favourite animal is a baby possum, or a joey. The face of a really little joey is so divine - so, so gorgeous.

  Mem Fox

  Baby, Animal, Thinking

  7 Copy quote

• I was the most Australian child ever in the world, even though my home was in Africa.

  Mem Fox

  Children, Home, World

  7 Copy quote

• I don't know why some people have children at all if they know that they can only take a few weeks off work.

  Mem Fox

  Children, People, Week

  8 Copy quote

• I made a lot of friends at school, and they were all Africans. I could have felt very different. I didn't feel different, I didn't notice the color of their skin, I didn't notice the color of my skin and I have remembered that all my life.

  Mem Fox

  School, Color, Skins

  7 Copy quote

• Putting babies as young as two weeks into child care for the first year of their life, for 60 hours a week, will cause their brains damage.

  Mem Fox

  Baby, Children, Years

  7 Copy quote

• DO NOT attempt to bring up other people's children through your text.

  Mem Fox

  Children, People

  4 Copy quote

• I don't go to church much anymore, but Methodist values still wind me up and send me ticking into my daily life.

  Mem Fox

  Wind, Church, Daily Life

  9 Copy quote

• I think sometimes we rush through countries, ticking off the attractions, but that's missing the point.

  Mem Fox

  Country, Thinking, Missing

  4 Copy quote

• I have very little patience with children.

  Mem Fox

  Children, Littles

  4 Copy quote

• Babies have much higher levels of stress in childcare.

  Mem Fox

  Baby, Stress, Levels

  16 Copy quote

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