100 Best Quotes from Children's Books by Susan Gabrielle

Author:Susan Gabrielle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hyperink
Published: 2013-04-23T00:00:00+00:00

Reaching Beyond Traditional Characters

In The Incredible Journey by Burnford, three unusual friends—a Siamese cat, a bull terrier, and a Labrador Retriever—try to make their way to their humans against all odds: “So the old dog, who was a natural clown, slithered half off the chair and stood, with his hindquarters resting on the cushions, waving his tail and nudging the cat, who sat like an Egyptian statue, eyes half closed, head erect, then gave a throaty growl and patted at the pink and black bull-terrier nose.”

Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth captures the tone and thoughts of many children in the opening lines: “There was once a boy named Milo who didn’t know what to do with himself—not just sometimes but always.” Of course such ideas always bring about imagination and adventure, such as a trip to Expectations.

Who could imagine a cricket could be such a fascinating character? In The Cricket in Times Square, Chester, Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat live at a newsstand in Manhattan where we are told: “And for a few minutes, while [Chester Cricket’s] song lasted, Times Square was as still as a meadow at evening, with the sun streaming in on the people there and the wind moving among them as if they were only tall blades of grass.”

An even more “odd character” is to be found in Shel Silverstein’s 1964 classic The Giving Tree:

Once there was a tree…

and she loved a little boy.

And every day the boy would come

and he would gather her leaves

and make them

into crowns

and play king of the forest.

Like Dr. Seuss, Madeline L’Engle had trouble getting her ideas into print, due to the combination of science and fantasy, which was not considered “understandable” by children at the time. Yet A Wrinkle in Time (1962) remains a children’s classic and reminds us: “We can’t take any credit for our talents. It’s how we use them that counts.”

</section>The Rise of Young Adult</section>

In her own mixed-up and humorous way, housekeeper Amelia Bedelia gets things done for the Rogers family, usually saving the day by cooking something scrumptious: “I think I’ll make a surprise for them. I’ll make lemon-meringue pie. I do make good pies.” As an easy reader for children, the fun is seeing how the English language can be confusing.

Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) is full of moral stories within a story, including this song from the Oompa-Loompas:

[Television] rots the senses in the head!

It kills imagination dead!

It clogs and clutters up the mind!

It makes a child so dull and blind

He can no longer understand

A fantasy, a fairyland!

His brain becomes as soft as cheese!

His powers of thinking rust and freeze!

He cannot think–he only sees!

For children who liked mysteries and crime-solving—and what child didn’t?—Sobel’s Encyclopedia Brown series got the reader involved right along with the main character: “[Encyclopedia Brown] read more books than anyone in Idaville, and he never forgot a fact. His pals said he was like a library and a computer rolled into one, and more user-friendly.”

Judy Blume explored the confusion early adolescents experience as they try and make sense of what is happening to them.

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