70 Quotes About Kidlit

On the day that five angry creditors came calling at Thirsby Square, Mr. Yates inconveniently fell nose-first into his porridge and died, leaving Mrs. Yates to clean up the mess in the kitchen and at the bank.

The villagers marked the time in two ways: before the swamp and after. What came before was good. And all that came after was not.

My dino ate my homework, he said it was delish.The words tasted like chicken, and the centences like fish.

Our lives are woven together like these threads yet the beauty is fragile.

I believe that the public library children’s room will always be necessary; but, if it is to survive, society in general must recognize it as necessary. I see no assurance of its survival unless it accomplishes what no other agency can.

Success today is too often measured by statistics. Large circulation figures are very impressive to people outside of the profession and to library directors who are not familiar with the aims of the public library children’s room. However, in spite of the emphasis on tangible proof, the children’s library which accomplishes its true aims will make itself felt so positively that even the most pragmatic board of trustees should be convinced of its worth.

Popularity of a book is not the criterion of its importance. A few very popular books are important experiences that we are glad to see many children having, but many popular books are, at best, commonplace experiences. The temptation in buying books for libraries is to buy those that “move,” that will not sit on the shelves. Yet very often the book that rests on the shelf may be the one that would be the most vivid experience of all to a certain child if he could but find it.

When I hear someone say, “Yes, it’s a good book but our children don’t like it,” I am inclined to think that either the librarian herself does not like it or has not read it. If a book is really good, if it is really alive, it is a potentially important experience for some children, perhaps only a few, but it may have a more far-reaching significance to those few than would a hundred mediocre books.

Yesterday’s children got what was good for them. Today’s children get what they want. One of the things they don’t want very much is a book. Literacy itself is becoming yet another commodity in short supply.from "One Thumping Lie Only" in The Thorny Paradise (1975)