Children's Literature Quotes - Page 4

• He [an earnest young reporter] seemed to share the view of many intelligent, well-educated, well-meaning people that, while adult literature may aim to be art, the object of children's books is to whip the little rascals into shape.

  Katherine Paterson

  Art, Children, Book

  Katherine Paterson (2011). “Read for Your Life #18”, p.22, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• It is, of course, traditional in children's literature to get rid of the parents.

  Anthony Horowitz

  Children, Parent, Literature

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• There is nothing more important than writing well for the young, if literature is to have a continuance ... They will inherit the earth; and nothing that we value will endure in the world unless they can be persuaded to value it too.

  Jill Paton Walsh

  Writing, Important, Literature

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• Over and over again women and men ... come to me saying, I don't know enough to write a book for adults, and so I'd like to try a book for children. And I tell them that when they have learned enough to write for an adult perhaps a child will listen to them.

  Mabel Robinson

  Children, Book, Writing

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

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• I do not believe in guilt, moderation or dull pencils.

  Nancy Lam

  Believe, Guilt, Literature

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• There’s a different flavor to children’s literature you read after you grow up than there was reading it as a child. Things that were sweet as a child become bitter once you grow up.

  Mizuki Nomura

  Sweet, Children, Growing Up

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• if a book is not good enough for a grownup, it is not good enough for a child.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Children, Book, Not Good Enough

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• I'm always loath to make generalizations about what is for children and what isn't. Certainly children's literature as a genre has some restrictions, so certain things will never pop up in a Snicket book. But I didn't know anything about writing for children when I started - this is the theme of naïveté creeping up on us once more - and I sort of still don't, and I'm happy that adults are reading them as well as children.

  Daniel Handler

  Children, Book, Reading

  Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. November 16, 2005.

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• I was glad my father was an eye-smiler. It meant he never gave me a fake smile, because it's impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren't feeling twinkly yourself. A mouth-smile is different. You can fake a mouth-smile any time you want, simply by moving your lips. I've also learned that a real mouth-smile always has an eye-smile to go with it, so watch out, I say, when someone smiles at you with his mouth but the eyes stay the same. It's sure to be bogus.

  Roald Dahl

  Children, Father, Real

  "Danny, the Champion of the World". Book by Roald Dahl, 1975.

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• In this modern world where activity is stressed almost to the point of mania, quietness as a childhood need is too often overlooked. Yet a child's need for quietness is the same today as it has always been--it may even be greater--for quietness is an essential part of all awareness. In quiet times and sleepy times a child can dwell in thoughts of his own, and in songs and stories of his own.

  Margaret Wise Brown

  Song, Children, Childhood

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• Only where children gather is there any real chance of fun.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Children, Fun, Real

  Mignon McLaughlin (2014). “Aperçus: The Aphorisms of Mignon McLaughlin”, p.48, BookBaby

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