Jon Scieszka Quotes

This is what I believe is most important: getting good books into the hands of kids - books that will make them want to say, 'Wow, that was great. Give me another one to read.'

I think kids will read more good books than we can possibly produce.

My platform has been to reach reluctant readers. And one of the best ways I found to motivate them is to connect them with reading that interests them, to expand the definition of reading to include humor, science fiction/fantasy, nonfiction, graphic novels, wordless books, audio books and comic books.

I got interested in the question of literacy because writers are always moaning about why more people don't read books.

Showing up at school already able to read is like showing up at the undertaker's already embalmed: people start worrying about being put out of their jobs.

If my books can help children become readers, then I feel I have accomplished something important.

I teach for the Book Trust, which promotes reading and writing with children.

I'm a voice for children's books and children's reading.

Bore children, and they stop reading. There's no room for self-indulgence or showing off or setting the scene.

When I visit schools, I try to reach kids who perhaps don't have books at home or aren't that keen on reading. Somehow you draw them in with the pictures and then perhaps they'll want to learn more about it. I use a lot of audience participation and find kids who aren't really part of it and try to include them - to draw in those reluctant readers.

I can't actually wrap my mind around it easily - I can't really visualize what 2 million books looks like... So I try to keep it real for myself by focusing on individual anecdotes of how my books have helped kids learn to love reading.

Readers can read what they want and easily switch to other books, so we're seeing a lot of reading behaviors. Some verticals attract different usage than others. We can spot reading patterns.

The ratio of literacy to illiteracy is constant, but nowadays the illiterates can read and write.

The policy of rewarding those who learn to read and write by giving them a chance to vote remain in operation in New England for many years as an influence tending to reduce illiteracy

Labeling is not the best way to get young people to deeply engage in reading.

When she was pregnant with Teddy, she feared that she’d give birth to a child who disliked reading. It would be like giving birth to a foreign species.

To write you had to read so I backed into reading.

I got interested in the question of literacy because writers are always moaning about why more people don't read books. They long for the good old days when people read serious novels.

My suspicion is that once you have literacy in place, the readership has not changed very much.

I didn't want any degrees if all the ill-read literates and radio announcers and pedagogical dummies I knew had them by the peck.

The difference between people who can read and write and those who can't is just absolutely astronomical.

There's no such thing as a kid who hates reading. There are kids who love reading, and kids who are reading the wrong books.

For me, reading is reading.

I just thought you'd like to know I can read. You got anything needs readin' I can do it.

America's education system has become less a ladder of opportunity than a structure to transmit inequity from one generation to the next.