Children's Literature Quotes - Page 2

• Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.

  Dr. Seuss

  Inspirational, Life, Fun

  The Lorax (1971)

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• A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

  Roald Dahl

  Beauty, Uplifting, Teacher

  Roald Dahl (2007). “James and the Giant Peach”, p.151, Penguin

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• a good deal of childhood is strong stuff for adults and totally unsuitable for children.

  Philippa Pearce

  Strong, Children, Childhood

  8 Copy quote

• Most of the great works of juvenile literature are subversive in one way or another: they express ideas and emotions not generally approved of or even recognized at the time; they make fun of honored figures and piously held beliefs; and they view social pretenses with clear-eyed directness, remarking - as in Andersen's famous tale - that the emperor has no clothes.

  Alison Lurie

  Fun, Views, Ideas

  9 Copy quote

• Don’t just teach your children to read… Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything.

  George Carlin

  Faith, Children, Learning

  244 Copy quote

• A children's writer should, ideally, be a dedicated semi-lunatic, a kind of poet with a marvelous idea, who, preferably, when not committing the marvellous idea to paper, does something else of a quite different kind, so as to acquire new and rich experience.

  Joan Aiken

  Children, Ideas, Doe

  17 Copy quote

• Science Fiction is a branch of children's literature.

  Thomas M. Disch

  Children, Fiction, Literature

  Thomas M. Disch (2005). “On SF”, p.4, University of Michigan Press

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• I don't think I'm essentially interested in children's books. I'm interested in writing, and in pictures. I'm interested in people and in children because they are people.

  Margaret Wise Brown

  Children, Book, Writing

  12 Copy quote

• Children’s literature must build a bridge between the colorful dream world full of fantasy and illusion, and a tougher real world full of twists and turns. The child armed with the torch of knowledge, awareness and guidance must cross this bridge and set foot to the intense harshness of the bigger world.

  Samad Behrangi

  Dream, Children, Real

  16 Copy quote

• Children's books are looked on as a sideline of literature. A special smile. They are usually thought to be associated with women. I was determined not to have this label of sentimentality put on me so I signed by my intials, hoping people wouldn't bother to wonder if the books were written by a man, woman or kangaroo.

  P. L. Travers

  Children, Book, Men

  20 Copy quote

• Only as we give the children the truth about life can we expect any improvement in it.

  Mabel Robinson

  Children, Giving, Literature

  Mabel Louise Robinson (1922). “Writing for Young People”

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• To write for children at all is an act of faith.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Children, Writing, Literature

  4 Copy quote

• If I have something I want to say that is too difficult for adults to swallow, then I will write it in a book for children.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Children, Book, Writing

  Twitter post from Jun 11, 2012

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• What I use from my own life is not the facts, it's the emotion. It's how I felt about something. It has nothing to do with facts at all. You can get those anywhere. It's the feelings of childhood that you need to know.

  Judy Delton

  Childhood, Feelings, Needs

  4 Copy quote

• When people ask me what qualifies me to be a writer for children, I say I was once a child. But I was not only a child, I was, better still, a weird little kid, and though I would never choose to give my own children this particular preparation for life, there are few things, apparently, more helpful to a writer than having once been a weird little kid.

  Katherine Paterson

  Children, Kids, People

  Katherine Paterson (2011). “Read for Your Life #18”, p.2, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Humor is the oxygen of children's literature. There's a lot of competition for children's time, but even kids who hate to read want to read a funny book.

  Sid Fleischman

  Children, Hate, Book

  14 Copy quote

• A childhood without books – that would be no childhood. That would be like being shut out from the enchanted place where you can go and find the rarest kind of joy.

  Astrid Lindgren

  Children, Book, Healing

  30 Copy quote

• More than this, I believe that the only lastingly important form of writing is writing for children. It is writing that is carried in the reader's heart for a lifetime; it is writing that speaks to the future.

  Sonya Hartnett

  Children, Believe, Heart

  18 Copy quote

• Children's reading and children's thinking are the rock-bottom base upon which this country will rise. Or not rise. In these days of tension and confusion, writers are beginning to realize that books for children have a greater potential for good or evil than any other form of literature on earth.

  Dr. Seuss

  Country, Children, Book

  8 Copy quote

• The work of one author or artist may stimulate another author or artist to push the edge, to take the risk, to go where the field hasn't gone before. The result -very exciting children's literature and art ... exciting both for the professional and for the intended audience, the children.

  Karen Hesse

  Art, Children, Dust

  9 Copy quote

• The other thing about the Nights is that it is quite racist. One parentheses is that I think this is one of the negative things that appeal to people, that The Arabian Nights could be used as a disguise for racism. It suited the West. You could smuggle racism into children's literature, you see. The African magician in the story of Aladdin, he's labeled explicitly as the "African Magician." He's not a character but a stereotype, and a lot of this got into nursery literature in this Oriental disguise.

  Marina Warner

  Children, Character, Night

  Source: therumpus.net

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• She asked where he lived. Second to the right,' said Peter, 'and then straight on till morning.

  James M. Barrie

  Morning, Neverland, Peter

  James M. Barrie (2015). “Peter Pan: Top 100 Classic Novels”, p.18, 谷月社

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• Come, my child," I said, trying to lead her away. "Wish good-bye to the poor hare, and come and look for blackberries." "Good-bye, poor hare!" Sylvie obediently repeated, looking over her shoulder at it as we turned away. And then, all in a moment, her self-command gave way. Pulling her hand out of mine, she ran back to where the dead hare was lying, and flung herself down at its side in such an agony of grief as I could hardly have believed possible in so young a child. "Oh, my darling, my darling!" she moaned, over and over again. "And God meant your life to be so beautiful!

  Lewis Carroll

  Beautiful, Children, Lying

  Lewis Carroll (2016). “Sylvie and Bruno”, p.181, Lewis Carroll

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• 'Oh, yes,' nodded Pollyanna emphatically. 'He said he felt better right away, that first day he thought to count 'em. He said if God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times to be glad and rejoice, He must want us to do it - some.

  Eleanor Porter

  Father, Eight, Ems

  "Pollyanna".

  69 Copy quote

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• There is a tiger in my room,' said Frances. 'Did he bite you?' said Father. 'No,' said Frances. 'Did he scratch you?' said Mother. 'No,' said Frances. 'Then he is a friendly tiger,' said Father. 'He will not hurt you. Go back to sleep.

  Russell Hoban

  Mother, Hurt, Father

  Russell Hoban “BEDTIME FOR FRANCES”

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