Mem Fox > Quotes

“As adults we choose our own reading material. Depending on our moods and needs we might read the newspaper, a blockbuster novel, an academic article, a women's magazine, a comic, a children's book, or the latest book that just about everyone is reading. No one chastises us for our choice. No one says, 'That's too short for you to read.' No one says, 'That's too easy for you, put it back.' No one says 'You couldn't read that if you tried -- it's much too difficult.'

Yet if we take a peek into classrooms, libraries, and bookshops we will notice that children's choices are often mocked, censured, and denied as valid by idiotic, interfering teachers, librarians, and parents. Choice is a personal matter that changes with experience, changes with mood, and changes with need. We should let it be.”
― Mem Fox, Radical Reflections: Passionate Opinions on Teaching, Learning, and Living

“The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading. It isn’t achieved by the book alone, nor by the child alone, nor by the adult who’s reading aloud—it’s the relationship winding between all three, bringing them together in easy harmony.”
― Mem Fox, Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever

“When I say to a parent, "read to a child", I don't want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate.”
― Mem Fox, Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever

“Writing a picture book is like writing 'War and Peace' in Haiku.”
― Mem Fox

“Books don't harm kids; they arm them.”
― Mem fox

“The ideal three stories a day are one favorite, one familiar, and one new, but the same book three times is also fine.”
― Mem Fox, Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever

“If every parent understood the huge educational benefits and intense happiness brought about by reading aloud to their children, and if every parent and every adult caring for a child read aloud three stories a day to the children in their lives ,we would probably wipe out illiteracy in one generation" Reading Magic Mem Fox”
― Mem Fox

“When I say to a parent, 'read to a child,' I don't want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate.”
― - Mem Fox

“Joys are the same,
and love is the same.

Pain is the same,
and blood is the same.

Smiles are the same,
and hearts are just the same--
wherever they are,
wherever you are,
wherever we are,

all over the world.”
― Mem Fox, Whoever You Are: A Picture Book Celebrating Differences and Similarities Among Children Worldwide

“Whatever happens in the world of school, continuing to read aloud to our children at home should solve most reading problems and will always be a lifeline to their happiness, their literacy, and their future. (Reading Magic)”
― Mem Fox

“Read-aloud sessions are times when parents and children fall in love with each other. (Reading Magic)”
― Mem Fox, Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever