Top 100 Children Literature Quotes
#2. The Grimm collections were never intended for children. Not because kids were excluded, but because the division we make today of children's literature didn't exist then. The idea of protecting children from tales with violence didn't occur until the earlier part of the 19th century.
Jack Zipes
#3. Would you like some more pancakes? Annie asked. I could tell that Annie was a smart girl. I hate to eat on the job. But I must keep up my strength.
Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
#4. If you ever meet someone who thinks they are so special, the best thing to do is smile. You don't have to say anything. Be friendly and then go do
your best. That will make you special, too!
Jeff Hutchins
#5. To those of you who study history, economics, sociology, literature and language I present the challenge of the utilization of the enormous resources in our grasp to the problem of creating a genuinely good life for yourselves and your children.
Polykarp Kusch
#7. Preliminary research-most of it published outside the medical literature-indicates that a significant number of our patients have experienced some form of violence and abuse during their lifetime, including elder abuse, child abuse, gang-related violence, sexual abuse, and domestic violence.
David Schneider
#9. Only as we give the children the truth about life can we expect any improvement in it.
Mabel Robinson
#10. ...if you were convinced that the world had forgotten how to think and teach, if you believed it had discarded the beauty of art and literature, if you thought it had crushed the power of truth, would you let that world educate your children?
Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
#11. A surprising number of people - including many students of literature - will tell you they haven't really lived in a book since they were children. Sadly, being taught literature often destroys the life of the books.
A.S. Byatt
#12. If emptiness is endless, then everything rests in emptiness.
Dejan Stojanovic
#13. Dead parents are gruesome, yes, but anyone who's anyone in children's literature has either been orphaned or abandoned; well-adjusted kids from stable two-parent homes don't go on hero quests.
Lynn Messina
#14. You must return to the fairy cave while children sleep. Fairies only exist if children believe in Fairyland. If you return after they wake from their dreams, you could remain frozen between two worlds for all eternity.
Caz Greenham
#15. Children talk themselves out of their convictions as they grow up and become distracted by their huge selfish selves. All the literature is consistent on this point. Children begin to think they've imagined us.
Gregory Maguire
#16. To maintain your honesty , one must know to keep alive the spirit of chidhood
Tushar Upreti
#17. It pains me to admit this, but Roger was a good sight less stupid than most children.
Heidi Schulz
#18. Today was a rainy, dreary, wear-your-steel-toed-mud-shoes Wednesday.
Greg Pincus
#19. When we've decided to tell the truth in a story, we should tell good, strong versions of it, proper versions that kids can do something with.
Celine Kiernan
#21. It's a sort of patronizing idea that literature for children has to feature role models of exemplary behavior. I think not only is that bogus, but it leads to really boring books.
Mac Barnett
#22. Instead of trying to come up and pontificate on what literature is, you need to talk with children, to teachers, and make sure they get poetry in the curriculum early.
Rita Dove
#23. Children's books are often seen as the poor relation of literature. But children are just as demanding as adult readers, if not more so. I should know. I'm a children's writer myself.
David Walliams
#24. Calico Kitty
My calico kitty
was painted and primed
she could prowl
the night away ~
without spending a dime...
Muse
#25. Jocelyn did not want to always remain the same. Where was the adventure in that?
Heidi Schulz
#26. I also really liked playing Mr. Tumnus in 'Narnia'. I got to play my favorite character in children's literature, which I loved. You don't get the chance to do that in other jobs.
James McAvoy
#27. I control the world so long as I can name it. Which is why children must chase language before they do anything else, tame the wilderness by describing it, challenge God by learning His hundred names.
Penelope Lively
#28. People didn't make life, so they can't destroy it. Even if we were to wipe out every bit of life in the world, we can't touch the place life comes from. Whatever made the plants and animals and people spring up in the first place will always be there, and life will spring up again.
Jeanne DuPrau
#29. A child without an acquaintance of some kind with a classic of literature ... suffers from that impoverishment for the rest of his life. No later intimacy is like that of the first.
Lizette Woodworth Reese
#30. Black children need to see their lives reflected in the books they read. If they don't, they won't feel welcome in the world of literature. The lives of African-Americans are rich and diverse, and the books our children read should reflect that.
Valerie Wilson Wesley
#31. A skunk is walking by. Skunks don't hurry or hide. The dogs and cats pretend not to notice them. It is best not to.
Alice Provensen
#32. 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
#33. Knowing few children of my age with whom to compare notes, I envied the children of literature to whom interesting things were always happening ...
Jessica Mitford
#34. I have children, and this notion - that there might be a single book that introduces children to literature - terrifies me. But you could do worse than Mary Norton's 'The Borrowers.' I loved it as a kid, and my kids love it, too.
Elizabeth McCracken
#35. Anything can become a children's book if you give it to a child ... Children are actually the best (and worst) audience for literature because they have no patience with pretence.
Orson Scott Card
#36. like many families, everyone wandered around like children in a funhouse - they could hardly see one another around the corners, and what they could see was completely distorted.
James Hannaham
#37. I think today if we forbade our illiterate children to touch the wonderful things of our literature, perhaps they might steal them and find secret joy.
John Steinbeck
#38. In some ways, getting published in children's literature is a little more open than publishing adult literature. It's less hinged on who you might know.
Marie Rutkoski
#39. Life on
Life on the reservation
Life on the reservation is dirty
Life on the reservation is dirty, filthy
Life on the reservation is dirty, filthy dogs.
(Dena Colhoff, student)
Timothy P. McLaughlin
#40. Encourage good music and art and literature in your homes. Homes that have a spirit of refinement and beauty will bless the lives of your children forever.
Ezra Taft Benson
#41. Children's books do not exist in a vacuum, unrelated to literature as a whole. They are a portion of universal literature and must be subjected to the same standards of criticism as any other form of literature.
Lillian H. Smith
#43. Have a little faith in your sons. This journey will be the making of them.
C.J. Milbrandt
#44. Big Ma didn't need to say any more and she didn't. T.J. was far from her favorite person and it was quite obvious that Stacey and I owed our good fortune entirely to T.J.'s obnoxious personality.
Mildred D. Taylor
#45. Let your boys test their wings. They may not be eagles, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't soar free.
C.J. Milbrandt
#46. If you haven't walked in someone else's shoes, it's difficult to know the fit, so be kind and compassionate.
Heather Wolf
#47. Originally I had planned to write just a couple of children's books and then, return the focus on adult literature. A funny thing happened along the way - I kept having new ideas, and then I looked up one day, and 30 years had passed!
Nikki Grimes
#49. The evening uneven sea glimmered with slices of dairy moon, the surface waves a shifting brew of dark tea stirred by an atmospheric spoon.
Neale Osborne
#50. Why is it that those who are the most concerned with manners rarely have any themselves?
Heidi Schulz
#51. MODERN PARENTS OF TWENTY FIRST CENTURY NEEDS SPIRITUAL BRAIN WASH WITH GREAT CLASSIC LITERATURE ACROSS THE GLOBE FIRST. NATURALLY,RESULTING OUR FUTURE GLOBAL DIRECORS(INDIVIDUAL CHILDREN) WILL RE-DESGN AND RE-DRAFT LIFE DIRECTION SOFT-WARE TO UP GRADE THEIR SOULS GOD SPIRITUALITY NEXT.
Various
#52. When I listen to you, God
when I do what you ask me to,
I am like a tree
planted by a river,
a tree full of fruit
with leaves that are always green. Ps 1(paraphrased)
Marie-Helene Delval
#53. We all R failures that's why V need #CHILDREN to fulfill D needs of #Society,#Nation,#Worlds , so that we can live the same old selfish way
Tushar Upreti
#54. A crowd began to gather round to watch the Heat begin.
They soon would learn which one would earn the famous Golden Fin!
The boards were tied to dolphin guides that pulled them like a sleigh
to what they called The Channel, every surfer's Dream Highway!
J.Z. Bingham
#55. If emptiness is empty, how can something be borne or awaken from it?
Dejan Stojanovic
#56. Nothing in life comes easy and without a price. The trick is learning to never give up.
Michael Alexander Beas
#57. There are people whom even children's literature would corrupt. They read with particular enjoyment the piquant passages in the Psalter and in the Wisdom of Solomon.
Anton Chekhov
#58. It is the best way to write poetry, letting things come. -Winnie-the-Pooh
A.A. Milne
#59. If we wish to unfold the mind in our children we do not leave them to their own uncultivated taste in all these things, but we try to help them to train that taste, whether it be in art, in music or in literature.
Charles Webster Leadbeater
#61. Your name isn't Sniffles?" Ewan pretended to be surprised.
C.J. Milbrandt
#62. None of the seven is really good, for the excellent reason that Australian children never are.
Ethel Turner
#63. We would learn as much as we could, be as honourable as we could, be as courageous as we could, and be as happy as we could.
S.L. Mills
#64. Mr. McGregor's a nasty piece of work, isn't he? Quite the Darth Vader of children's literature.
Jasper Fforde
#65. It is such a privilege to learn from children as they discover new worlds of possibility and give themselves fully over to their dreams, inspiring a few adults along the way.
Colleen Mariotti
#66. Alas, if our children lose the crown of life, it will be but a small consolation that they have won the laurels of literature or art.
Charles Spurgeon
#67. After 9/11, there was so much distress in America that it led to an inter-cultural breakdown. Some of our communities were targeted. Many of our adults shut themselves off from other cultures. I tried to bring children of Indian and other cultures together in my literature.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
#68. 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
#69. To come to nothing through something is the way to outside from both sides.
Dejan Stojanovic
#70. Children's books aren't textbooks. Their primary purpose isn't supposed to be "Pick this up and it will teach you this." It's not how literature should be. You probably do learn something from every book you pick up, but it might be simply how to laugh.
J.K. Rowling
#71. I don't know anyone who remembers meeting their parents when they were a baby so i'm just like everybody else. -Zoey (100% Real)
Tara Michener
#72. The odd was the ordinary at Alistair Grim's. The people who lived there were odd. The things they did there were odd. Even the there itself there was odd.
Gregory Funaro
#73. Protect our children from failure, is impossible; Teach them how to get up can make the difference
Mayra A. Diaz
#74. There is a very big difference between writing for children and writing for young adults. The first thing I would say is that 'Young Adult' does not mean 'Older Children', it really does mean young but adult, and the category should be seen as a subset of adult literature, not of children's books.
Garth Nix
#75. I love to read about anger. A "feel bad" book always makes me feel good. And no other novel in the history of literature is more depressing than Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children.
John Waters
#76. The smaller girl hid her eyes with her hands, and Ewan smiled. Did she think that would make her invisible?
C.J. Milbrandt
#77. I'm kind of a reluctant Anglophile. My mother's a children's librarian, and all of the children's literature I read was from her childhood - E. Nesbit and Dickens, which isn't children's literature at all, but I was sort of steeped in English literature. I thought I was of that world.
Jefferson Mays
#78. Every star was once darker than the night, before it awoke.
Dejan Stojanovic
#79. A fortress built long ago,
Walls made timeless by historic glory.
The small girl in the boat slows,
To listen to its story.
Rachel Lewis
#80. My grandma, Mrs Grace Ayorkor Acquah said 'Educating the child is everybody's business.
Lailah Gifty Akita
#81. Regarding children's literature, look for interesting content and well-constructed sentences clothed in literary language. The imagination should be warmed and the book should hold the interest of the child. Life's too short to spend time with books that bore us.
Deborah Taylor-Hough
#82. Themes that are "too large for adult fiction can only be dealt with adequately in a children's book" - Philip Pullman
(Hunt and Lenz, 2001, p. 122 as cited by Hunt, 2005, p. 204)
Philip Pullman
#83. I have spent a great deal of my time defending my work against those who see it as too complicated, too old in approach, too bleak to qualify as children's literature. This has been the bane of my life.
Sonya Hartnett
#84. I've always been interested in a certain kind of sophistication in children's literature. I loved Roald Dahl; I loved the underlying nastiness of some of his - darkness of his tales.
David Small
#85. Literature has the ability to open up a whole new world to children, but we need to have a share in helping them to find that door and open it with them. Let's set the example and help to foster this love of reading in our little ones.
Carmela Dutra
#86. Animals in children's literature always have a soul life because children perceive animals as having souls.
Linda Bender
#88. Ganix didn't need to make friends. Everyone was a friend!
C.J. Milbrandt
#89. Lots of children I know are excited to grow up. So I wonder why this man was so happy to become young again?
Sara Rich
#90. When you are falling short in vocabulary to explain the emotion in your story.Than you are writing the right story
Tushar Upreti
#91. A child's imagination can be found in the heart of a good book.
K. Lamb
#92. In our time, when the literature for adults is deteriorating, good books for children are the only hope, the only refuge.
Isaac Bashevis Singer
#93. Every book has it's destiny, Like a human life , Sometime when an Author is dead the destiny of the book begins" The days of Childhood !!!!!
Tushar Upreti
#94. They [Narnia] are, perhaps, the greatest classics of children's literature of the twentieth century.
Douglas Gresham
#96. If you write a kid's book only for kids, then you have failed.
Don Roff
#97. Ocean waves gently rock the boat,
As if to the tune of a lullaby.
She sits still as the boat silently floats
Under the infinite blue sky.
Rachel Lewis
#98. Childhood is the time and children's books are the place for powerful emotions, powerful language, powerful art ... There is no room for cutesy books, dull books, or books that talk down. Children are not inferior. They may be small in stature but not in what they feel, think, listen, and see.
Betsy Hearne
#99. When I started writing and illustrating, I knew little of classic children's literature. My stories came from real life, from my concerns about what was happening in the world.
Michael Foreman
#100. Science Fiction is a branch of children's literature.
Thomas M. Disch
