Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book Quotes

“Reading centers on finding yourself in a book. -- Sherman Alexie”
― Anita Silvey, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life

“Judy Blume: Some books you never forget. Some characters become your friends for life.”
― Anita Silvey, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life

“Jerry J. Mallett: From it I learned that it is never too late to have your life changed by a children's book.”
― Anita Silvey, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life

“Lynda Johnson Robb: Children's books tie together the stages of life. You read them when you are eight or ten or twelve, and then they stay with you. I still have many books that I loved as a child and have kept; I read books to my own children; and now we will share books with my grandchildren.

...Children's books stabilize me, they are my roots; they help me in times of stress. They help me connect to happy memories, to those I love, to the generations in my family. They provide comfort.”
― Anita Silvey, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life

“As children, in our own school of life, we soak up clues about our world just as eagerly as small squirrels. Exposure to children's books provides verbal and visual material to help us along the way. So subtle and varied can the lessons be that it may take years before we use everything we absorbed.”
― Anita Silvey, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life

“Jim Trelease: Until the "Call of the Wild", I'd always been aware I was reading a book; that is, I'd yet to be "lost" in one. Jack London gave me my first dose of "virtual reality" decades before the phrase was coined. I went immediately to his "White Fang" and then Jack O'Brien's "Silver Chief" series.

For years afterwards I believed the whole experience was peculiar to me. It wasn't until I was in my fifties and read an old essay by Clifton Fadiman that I discovered the experience wasn't peculiar at all, that nearly all lifetime readers experience it with a singular book at some point. Fadiman explained that such a book is like one's first big kiss or first home run - they're unforgettable, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to duplicate or surpass them.

In recent years, when my friend Stephen Krashen, the reading researcher, explored Fadiman's theory, he found it to be firmly grounded: teenagers who were avid readers could almost always name their "home run" book while unenthusiastic or reluctant readers could not.”
― Anita Silvey, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life

“Nick Clark: Books are so important in conveying messages to children. We may not fully appreciate the impact of a book until we are older, but there are things that we learn from our reading.”
― Anita Silvey, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life

“But not all books must be universally approved or applauded to bring meaning; books are, ultimately, the most personal of media. They can be important to only one person or to only a few people, and yet because of that they still have tremendous influence.”
― Anita Silvey, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life

“The act of reading to a child is the most important contribution to the future of our society that adults can make.”
― Anita Silvey, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life

“Wendell Minor: I believe that children's books are the last pond in the Serengeti. They are the only place we go to drink for inspiration. All of us can still go - and do....”
― Anita Silvey, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life

“Jack Pikulski: I learned... ...that children's books not only inform and entertain, but they make lasting impressions and add richness to our lives and the lives of those we love. While I am definitely into my mature years, I still read children's books; I always will.”
― Anita Silvey, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life