Susan Gabrielle - 100 Best Quotes from Childrens Books

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates loot on Treasure Island.

-Walt Disney

Storytelling has been around as long as humankind, although the ability to be a storyteller or history-keeper is a special gift not everyone possesses. Generations of our ancestors told oral tales of encounters with nature with wild animals or with the land itself, real or imagined. Clans gathered around to hear of dreams or of explanations of certain unexplainable phenomena, such as thunder and lightning.

These stories were often illustrated by scratching them or painting them onto cave walls or on rocks, and especially those tales of great battles against warring tribes. Some of the stories only existed as verbal histories passed from grandfathers to sons to grandsons.

Others, such as the creation myths from various cultures, probably existed for many years before eventually being recorded in writing. As explained in Storytelling and Oral History, The stories we are willing to share with one another give our culture its values, beliefs, goals and traditions, binding us together into a cohesive society, allowing us to work together with a common purpose. Storytelling lives at the heart of human experience a compelling form of personal communication as ancient as language itself. Since the beginnings of humankind, we have shared, through stories, the events, beliefs, and values held dear by families, communities, and cultures.

But while storytelling itself is an ancient art form, the genre of childrens literature is relatively new, and childrens book publishing only came to prominence beginning in Great Britain in the 18th century. As Allen notes, From the time John Newbery, publisher and bookseller, decided to create books just for children in 18th-century England until the end of the 19th century, when English industry produced childrens books of the highest quality, the body of childrens literature that became available from England earned a growing respect throughout the literary world.

Before that time, children were treated as miniature adults, useful only insofar as their ability to bring income to the home. Most children up to the 1800s worked on the family farm, so there was little free time for play, and since many children did not attend school, they could not read. The family may have owned a Bible, but it most likely would have been read to them by the father, perhaps after dinner.

They may have been familiar with traditional Old Testament stories like Daniel in the lions den, David and the Goliath, and the fall of Adam and Eve, and may have memorized verses such as Psalm 23 beginning, The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want, or Psalm 91: He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Families might have employed the words of Proverbs 6, Go to the ant O sluggard; consider her ways and be wise to get children working productively. Angry children may have been reminded of the verse from Ephesians: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

It would be in the latter half of this time period, in 1865, that Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) would publish Alices Adventures in Wonderland, and from which children and their parents would gain such notable quotes from the main character as,I didnt know that cheshire cats always grinned; in fact, I didnt know that cats could grin.

During the Industrial Revolution in the United States, children were trained to work in factories to earn money to help feed the family, and it would not be until the early 1900s, when schooling became mandatory for children, that books for and about children became more common in the United States. There were literary pieces prior to this time that appealed to children, but were not written specifically for children. Clement Clarke Moores A Visit from St. Nicholas (1823) is an example of this:

Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar plums dancd in their heads

Such is the case, too, with what we now refer to as Mother Goose rhymes which may have beginnings as far back as the 1600s. While children loved the rhyming schemes and interesting language, there is evidence that some were created for adults as commentary on the political situation in Britain. Publisher John Newbery, mentioned earlier, produced a book of English rhymes in 1781 called Mother Gooses Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle called the most celebrated Songs and Lullabies of old British nurses. It made its way to the United States soon after. Who hasnt heard this familiar rhyme?

Baa, baa, black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir,

Three bags full;

One for my master,

One for my dame,

And one for the little boy

That lives in our lane.

This poem endures today as childrens literature which appeals to both young and old. Allen comments (p. 4), Because of the many levels of meaning in these books [such as Carrolls Through the Looking-Glass ], one of the greatest controversies in the history of childrens literature has been whether or not they should carry the label of childrens book.

The question then becomes, What is a childrens book as distinguished from an adult book? This idea is echoed by Alison Lurie in Dont Tell the Grown-Ups: Why Kids Love the Books They Do : One of the most striking things about childrens books is how widely they are known by adults. Probably almost everyone in Americais familiar with Cinderella and Alices Adventures in Wonderland; not one in ten will have read James Joyce.

The reverse is also true, and has been mentioned. Many of the tales we now recognize as being for children came out of stories told long before they were printed, and were for a general audience. Langs Fairy Books ( the earliest one in 1889) h ave stories that were part of ancient Europe and Asia, such as Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, which made famous the line, My, what big teeth you have! to which the wolf replies, The better to eat you up!

These ancient stories were designed to teach a moral lesson, and similar tales were common in Denmark (via Hans Christian Anderson), and Germany (the Brothers Grimm). In Collodis The Adventures of Pinocchio (translated from Italian into English in 1892), readers learned of the dangers of lying: At this third lie, his nose grew to such an extraordinary length that poor Pinocchio could not move in any direction.

With the introduction of the March family in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868), there is movement away from fairy tales and the fantasy world of Alice to a more realistic approach to stories. Jo Marchs words, Cant keep still all day.I like adventures, and Im going to find one, sums up her attitude about how she charges along in her real life.

This would also be true for Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) whose main character from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer showed children to be more complicated than simply obedient do-gooders, as they had previously been represented. Of Tom, Twain wrote, Monday morning found Tom Sawyer miserable. Monday morning always found him so because it began another weeks slow suffering in school. Havent we all felt that way about Mondays, whether as children or adults?

Joel Chandler Harriss