by Amy Gash
—The Most Beautiful Place in the World, Ann Cameron, 1988
Growing Wise
The answers aren’t important really . . . What’s important is—knowing all the questions.
—The Changeling, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, 1970
It is much more difficult to judge oneself than judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.
—The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943
Wise men know that their business is to examine what is, and not to settle what is not.
—The Water-Babies, Charles Kingsley, 1863
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too; . . .
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim: . . .
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
—“If—”Rewards and Fairies, Rudyard Kipling, 1910
Sometimes one must travel far to discover what is near.
—The Treasure, Uri Shulevitz, 1978
—Beautiful Warrior, Emily Arnold McCully, 1998
—The Mouse and His Child, Russell Hoban, 1967
“I now know that instead of being the smartest man in the kingdom, I am as big a fool as anyone else.”
“Ah, Your Majesty,” said Kit. “That is the beginning of wisdom.”
—School for Sillies, Jay Williams, 1969
Knowledge will not always take the place of simple observation.
—“The Elephant and His Son,” Fables, Arnold Lobel, 1980
And I’m learning, watching Daddy, that you can stay in one place and still grow.
—Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse, 1997
Each thing she learned became part of herself, to be used over and over in new adventures.
—Gypsy, Kate Seredy, 1951
A prudent person avoids unpleasant things; but a wise man overcomes them.
—The Chatterlings, Michael Lipman, 1928
—Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Robert C. O’Brien, 1971
Silence
Perhaps after all it is just as well to speak only once a year and then speak to the purpose.
—Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Kate Douglas Wiggin, 1903
The Ayorthaians think before they speak, and often conclude, after lengthy meditation, that nothing need be said.
—Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine, 1997
Sometimes the feeling is more important than the word.
—Nobody Stole the Pie, Sonia Levitin, 1980
I assure you that you can pick up more information when you are listening than when you are talking.
—The Trumpet of the Swan, E. B. White, 1970
You have to stop when you’re lonely and listen.
—If You Listen, Charlotte Zolotow, 1980
—Mother Goose nursery rhyme
Some people talk in a whisper,
And some people talk in a drawl;
And some people talk-and-talk-and-talk-
and-talk-and-talk
And never say anything at all.
—“Thoughts on Talkers,” The Collected Poems of Freddy the Pig, Walter R. Brooks, 1953
There are some happenings we do not speak of. . . . It is better to be quiet until one understands.
—Waterless Mountain, Laura Adams Armer, 1931
Goodnight stars
Goodnight air
Goodnight noises everywhere
—Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown, 1947
Hidden Truths
A good detective is always in demand.
—Nancy Drew Mystery Stories: The Hidden Staircase, Carolyn Keene, 1930
Front yards are boring.
Backyards tell stories.
—“Backyards,” Popcorn, James Stevenson, 1998
—The Moon Lady, Amy Tan, 1992
And this warning take, I beg:
Not every wolf runs on four legs.
The smooth tongue of a smooth-skinned creature
May mask a rough and wolfish nature.
The quiet types, for all their charm,
Can be the cause of the worse harm.
—“Little Red Riding Hood,” Histories; or, Tales of Times Past, Charles Perrault, 1697
Grownups sure do a lot of pretending and call it politeness.
—Miss Charity Comes to Stay, Alberta Wilson Constant, 1959
A man’s body is like a pot, which does not disclose what is inside. Only when the pot is poured, do we see its contents.
—“The Pot Child,” Dream Weaver, Jane Yolen, 1978
Sometimes you must seem to hurt something in order to do good for it.
—The Grey King, Susan Cooper, 1975
—Sarah Somebody, Florence Slobodkin, 1969
I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me.
—The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton, 1967
Dark ain’t so bad if you know what’s in it.
—The Whipping Boy, Sid Fleischman, 1986
In our houses
shadows were only
the other sides of things.
—“Our Houses,” Judy Scuppernong, Brenda Seabrooke, 1990
I just can’t believe that I’m this muddy thing you see crawling about in the muck. . . . I simply can’t tell you how I feel inside! Clean and bright and beautiful—like a song in the sunlight, like a sigh in the summer air.
—The Mouse and His Child, Russell Hoban, 1967
“Many folks with handsome faces are greater monsters than you,” said Beauty. “Their ugliness is all inside them.”
—Beauty and the Beast, Nancy Willard, 1992
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
—The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943
At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done—then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.
—The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1911
How will you dream if you don’t sleep?
How will you hear yourself?
—Morning Girl, Michael Dorris, 1992
Reverence
So many, many things are Mystery.
—Emily, Michael Bedard, 1992
Morning has broken
Like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise for the singing!
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing
From the first Word.
—“A Morning Song,” The Children’s Bells, Eleanor Farjeon, 1960
Dying’s part of the wheel, right there next to being born. . . . Being part of the whole thing, that’s the blessing.
—Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt, 1975
We will wait, for God is in the waiting.
—The Trumpeter of Krakow, Eric P. Kelly, 1928
—Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Judy Blume, 1970
Life was suddenly too sad. And yet it was beautiful. The beauty was dimmed when the sadness welled up. And the beauty would be there again when the sadness went. So the beauty and the sadness belonged together somehow.
—Dominic, William Steig, 1972
—The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1911
There’s a rhythm to flying and it’s the rhythm of the universe.
—Dominic, William Steig, 1972
Like all magnificent things, it’s very simple.
—Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt, 1975
I speak quietly,
I do not sing,
I whisper, for beauty
is a fragile thing.
—“Marigolds,” Everything Glistens and Everything Sings, Charlotte Zolotow, 1987<
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There’s a lot of hope and a lot of faith and love mixed up in a miracle.
—Journey from Peppermint Street, Meindert Dejong, 1968
It is sometimes the mystery of death that brings one to a consciousness of the still greater mystery of life.
—Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Kate Douglas Wiggin, 1903
—The Alfred Summer, Jan Slepian, 1980
Growing Old
When I grow up
(as everyone does)
what will become
of the Me I was?
—“Growing Up,” Always Wondering, Aileen Fisher, 1991
—Sumi’s Special Happening, Yoshiko Uchida, 1966
I have no time to grow old. . . . I am too busy for that.
It is very idle to grow old.
—“The Golden Key,” Dealings with the Fairies, George MacDonald, 1867
Youth has nothing to do with birthdays, only with alivedness of spirit, so even if your hair is grey, Daddy, you can still be a boy.
—Daddy-Long-Legs, Jean Webster, 1912
Very new things and very old things are much alike. Everything is a circle. Both ends meet. There is nothing much older or more wrinkled-looking than a baby just born.
—Dobry, Monica Shannon, 1934
Once I might have wished for that: never to grow old. But now I know that to stay young always is also not to change. And that is what life’s all about—changes going on every minute, and you never know when something begins where it’s going to take you.
—A Gathering of Days, Joan W. Bios, 1979
At my age, beauty is beside the point. Just staying alive is the goal. . . . And nobody could mistake me for a corpse in this outfit. Dead people tend to dress much more conservatively.
—Dancing with Great-Aunt Cornelia, Anne Quirk, 1997
To die will be an awfully big adventure.
—Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie, 1911
It is only when one has grown old and dull that the soul is heavy and refuses to rise. The young soul is ever winged; a breath stirs it to an upward flight.
—Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Kate Douglas Wiggin, 1903
—Miss Rumphius, Barbara Cooney, 1982
Index by Books
THIS INDEX INCLUDES bibliographic information from the most recent editions so you can find the books more easily. When a book is out of print, I’ve noted the edition I read.
A
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain (Puffin, 1995; paperback) 102
The Adventures of Pinocchio, C. Collodi (Puffin, 1996; paperback) 8, 84, 95
Aesop’s Fables (Puffin, 1996; paperback) 59, 93, 96
The Alfred Summer, Jan Slepian (Macmillan, 1980; out of print) 124
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (Puffin, 1994; paperback) 37, 87, 101
Always Wondering, Aileen Fisher (Charlotte Zolotow Books, 1991; out of print) 125
Anne’s House of Dreams, L. M. Montgomery (Bantam, 1983; paperback) 96
Anne of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery (Puffin, 1997; paperback) 35
Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery (Puffin, 1996; paperback) 87
Annie Bananie, Leah Komaiko (Harper Trophy, 1989; paperback) 34
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Judy Blume (Laurel Leaf Library, 1991; paperback) 121
Arion and the Dolphin, Vikram Seth (Dutton Children’s Books, 1994; out of print) 29
B
A Baby Sister for Frances, Russell Hoban (Harper Trophy, 1993; paperback) 85
The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts, Hilaire Belloc (Knopf, 1965; out of print) 16
Bambi’s Children, Felix Salten (The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1939; out of print) 92
Banana Blitz, Florence Parry Heide (Holiday House, 1983; out of print) 54
The Bat-Poet, Randall Jarrell (Harper Trophy, 1996; paperback) 79
A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond (Yearling Books, 1968; paperback) 16
Bear Circus, William Pène du Bois (The Viking Press, 1971; out of print) 32
Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls, William Cole, ed. (The World Publishing Company, 1964; out of print) 18
Beautiful Warrior, Emily Arnold McCully (Scholastic, 1998; hardcover) 50, 105
Beauty and the Beast, Nancy Willard (Harcourt Brace Juvenile Books, 1992; hardcover) 22, 28, 118
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, Maud Hart Lovelace (Harper Trophy, 1993; paperback) 41
Black Beauty, Anna Sewell (Puffin, 1994; paperback) 26, 82
Black Misery, Langston Hughes (Oxford University Press Children’s Books, 1994; hardcover) 77
Bob and Jack: A Boy and His Yak, Jeff Moss (Bantam Young Reader, 1992; hardcover) 80
The Borrowers Aloft, Mary Norton (Harcourt Brace and Co., 1998; hardcover) 94
The Broccoli Tapes, Jan Slepian (Philomel Books, 1988; hardcover) 78
The Burgess Nonsense Book, Gelett Burgess (out of print; see Nonsense & Common Sense, John Grossman and Priscilla Dunhill, Workman Publishing, 1992; hardcover) 38
By the Light of the Silvery Moon, Nola Langner (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1983; out of print) 46
C
Cautionary Verses, Hilaire Belloc (Templegate Publishers, 1998; paperback) 66
The Changeling, Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum, 1970; out of print) 28, 54, 103
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl(Puffin, 1998; paperback) 55, 100
Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White (Harper Trophy, 1974; paperback) 26, 33
The Chatterlings, Michael Lipman (The P. F. Volland Co., 1928; out of print) 107
The Children’s Bells, Eleanor Farjeon (Henry Z. Walck, 1960; out of print) 120
A Child’s Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson (Puffin, 1995; paperback) 17
Chimneysmoke, Christopher Morley (George H. Doran Co., 1921; out of print) 64
Colette and the Princess, Louis Slobodkin (E. P. Dutton & Co., 1965; out of print) 96
The Collected Poems of Freddy the Pig, Walter R. Brooks (Knopf, 1953; out of print) 12, 78, 112
The Cricket in Times Square, George Selden (Dell Publishing Co., 1999; paperback) 17, 44, 86
Crow and Weasel, Barry Lopez (Sunburst, 1998; paperback) 98
Custard the Dragon and the Wicked Knight, Ogden Nash (Little, Brown & Co., 1996; hardcover) 89
D
Daddy-Long-Legs, Jean Webster (Puffin, 1995; paperback) 55, 58, 127
Dancing with Great-Aunt Cornelia, Anne Quirk (HarperCollins Children’s Books, 1997; hardcover) 128
Dealings with the Fairies, George MacDonald (out of print; see The Golden Key, George MacDonald, Sunburst, 1992; paperback) 9, 127
Dobry, Monica Shannon (The Viking Press, 1934; out of print) 30, 46, 127
Dominic, William Steig (Sunburst, 1984; paperback) 22, 50, 121, 123
The Door in the Wall, Marguerite de Angeli (Laurel Leaf Library, 1998; paperback) 12, 49
The Dragon of Og, Rumer Godden (The Viking Press, 1981; out of print) 64
Dream Weaver, Jane Yolen (Philomel, 1978; out of print) 115
E
Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine (Harper Trophy, 1998; paperback) 14, 110
Eloise, Kay Thompson (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1969; hardcover) 63, 88
The Emerald City of Oz, L. Frank Baum (Ballantine, 1989; paperback) 82
Emily, Michael Bedard (Doubleday, 1992; hardcover) 119
The Enchanted Forest, Beatrice Schenk de Regniers (Atheneum, 1974; out of print) 83
Everyone Poops, Taro Gomi (Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 1993; hardcover) 42
Everything Glistens and Everything Sings, Charlotte Zolotow (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987; out of print) 123
F
Fables, Jean de La Fontaine (out of print; see Selected Fables, Jean de La Fontaine, Oxford University Press, 1995; paperback) 95
Fables, Arnold Lobel (Harper Trophy, 1983; paperback) 17, 107
The Fairy Caravan, Beatrix Potter (Frederick Warne & Co., 1929; out of print) 24, 72
Fa
iry Tales, Hans Christian Andersen (Anchor, 1983; paperback) 44
Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson (Sunburst, 1990; paperback) 24, 38, 61
Freaky Friday, Mary Rodgers (Harper Trophy, 1993; paperback) 87
Freckles, Gene Stratton Porter (Puffin, 1992; paperback) 49, 66
Freddy Goes to Florida, Walter R. Brooks (Overlook Press, 1997; hardcover) 26
Further Tales of Mr. Pengachoosa, Caroline Rush (Crown, 1967; out of print) 42, 57
G
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal 1830-32, Joan W. Bios (Aladdin Paperbacks, 1990; paperback) 11, 48, 128
Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon, Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Dutton Children’s Books, 1986; hardcover) 8
A Gift for Tía Rosa, Karen T. Taha (Yearling Books, 1996; paperback) 84
The Girl Who Changed the World, Delia Ephron (Ticknor & Fields, 1993; hardcover) 55
The Girl Who Loved the Wind, Jane Yolen (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1972; out of print) 59
Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown (Harper Trophy, 1977; paperback) 112
Gregory the Terrible Eater, Mitchell Sharmat (Scholastic, 1989; paperback) 65
The Grey King, Susan Cooper (Collier’s Books for Young Adults, 1986; paperback) 116
The Griffin and the Minor Canon, Frank R. Stockton (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963; out of print) 61