Isaac Bashevis Singer Quotes

I wish that the adults who are 'in power' cared more about what their children read. Books are incredibly powerful when we are young - the books I read as a child have stayed with me my entire life - and yet, the people who write about books, for the most part, completely ignore children's literature.

I hope children will be happy with the books I've written, and go on to be readers all of their lives.

Reading makes all other learning possible. We have to get books into our children's hands early and often.

Books that children read but once are of scant service to them; those that have really helped to warm our imaginations and to train our faculties are the few old friends we know so well that they have become a portion of our thinking selves.

Some people may contend that there is no image more charming that a child holding a puppy or kitten. But for me that's a distant second. When I see a child clutching a book... to his or her tiny bosom, I'm moved. Children can possess a book in a way they can never possess a video game, a TV show, or a Darth Vader doll. A book comes alive when they read it. They give it life themselves by understanding it.

When you read to a child, when you put a book in a child's hands, you are bringing that child news of the infinitely varied nature of life. You are an awakener.

My favorite book is 'Go Away Big Green Monster.' I wrote it for my granddaughter Adrian, who was in the third grade at the time.

Writing for children hadn't occurred to me when I was younger, but nine years of teaching in the upper elementary grades had given me a deep appreciation of the gifts and graces that are specific to individuals with 10 or 11 years of experience as human beings.

There is nothing that 'Sesame Street' can't teach you, if you let it.

It is extremely important to me to write for children.

Children find prescriptive reading lists daunting, and they are a dangerous thing to have in schools.

I am very much interested in getting parents to read to children, and trying to get people mentoring children. If I can do both I'll be happy.

When children do not have three square meals a day, a proper education, and at least one adult who they know loves and is committed to them, it's very unlikely they will grow up to be productive citizens of the world.

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

It's our job - as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles - to find books our kids are going to like.

I grew up in a house with very few books.

Encourage your children to read more and watch television less.

I read a whole lot as a child, and, of course, I still read children's books.

I hate the idea of any kid missing out on the magic of reading.

When you go somewhere like Kenya and you see how the children don't have pencils and pens, and all of these things are considered luxuries, and what a privilege they see education as and how hungry they are to learn, I wanted to give my brother and sister long lectures. That definitely stayed with me.

If I ever have children of my own, they will read 'Matilda.' They will watch the movie. And you can bet they will see 'Matilda: The Musical.'

I just like seeing kids inspired.

And if I could get the mayors, and the governors, and the president to look into the eyes of the five-year-olds of this nation, dressed in old raggedy clothes, whose zippers are broken but whose dreams are still alive, they would know what I know-that children need people to fight for them. To stand with them on the most dangerous streets, in the dirtiest hallways, in their darkest hours.

Children cannot eat rhetoric and they cannot be sheltered by commissions.

I have three kids, so children's literature is a big part of my life.