What the Dormouse Said: Lessons for Grownups from Children's Books - Hardcover

Gash, Amy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1565122410 ISBN 13: 9781565122413

Publisher: Algonquin Books, 1999

Synopsis

This one-of-a-kind collection reminds weary adults not to lose sight of the values and virtues they learned as kids. Here are over three hundred quotations from over two hundred well-loved children's books, such as Charlotte's Web, Peter Pan, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Eloise, Sounder, Number the Stars, and Goodnight Moon, organized by topic, among them Acceptance, Goodness, Family Woes, and Growing Old. On Silence: "I assure you that you can pick up more information when you are listening than when you are talking."--E. B.White, The Trumpet of the Swan. On Reverence: "Dying's part of the wheel, right there next to being born. . . . Being part of the whole thing, that's the blessing."--Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting.

With clever illustrations from Pierre Le-Tan, here is a book to share with a friend or keep by your own bedside. It's the perfect gift for your sister, your mother, your brother, your nephew, your kid's teacher, your daughter away at college, your son in the Navy, your mailman, your priest, for the old lady next door, or for the baby just born. Most importantly, give it to yourself. It will help you remember why you loved reading in the first place.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Remember when you thought you could fly? When a hike through the backyard was a big adventure and a bedtime story could conquer your fear of the dark? Well, you're never too old to rediscover the simple pleasures and lessons of childhood--and sometimes it just takes a Peter Pan or a Pooh Bear to point the way.

What the Dormouse Said is the first book to bring together worldly wisdom from more than two hundred best-loved children's books: What does the Little Prince know about searching for beauty? What can Madeline teach us about being brave? And what is Harry Potter's prescription for living well? From such classics as Charlotte's Web and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, here are lessons about lofty matters, like love and faith, and practical matters, like table manners and family woes. These inspirational and witty quotations, from Aesop to Dr. Seuss, from Mark Twain to Judy Blume, remind us not to lose sight of the values we learned as kids--to be courageous, to do good deeds, to respect our imaginations and maybe even to break a few rules once in a while.

From the Back Cover

What the Dormouse Said reminds us that we should never grow so old, or change so much, that we cannot find room in our hearts for the wisdom of children's books.

--from the foreword by Judith Viorst

From What the Dormouse Said:

On 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

On Pleasure: "Believe me, my young friend, ther is nothing--absolutely nothing--half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

--The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

On Acceptance: "The world is full of happiness, and plenty to go round, if you are only willing to take the kind that comes your way."

--Daddy-Long-Legs, Jean Webster

About this edition

• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1565122410
• ISBN 13: 9781565122413
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 146
• Illustrator: Le-Tan Pierre