What the Dormouse Said: Lessons for Grown-ups from Children's Books - Softcover

Gash, Amy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1565124510 ISBN 13: 9781565124516

Publisher: Algonquin Books, 2004

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

About the Author

Amy Gash is an executive editor at Algonquin Books, where she acquires and edits narrative nonfiction and fiction for adults. Her first collection of quotations from children’s books was What the Dormouse Said. She lives in New Jersey.

Pierre Le-Tan has illustrated many books for children and adults. His work has appeared in leading magazines and newspapers, including the New Yorker, GQ, Glamour, the Atlantic Monthly, and Rolling Stone.


Judith Viorst is the author of twenty-five books, including Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and the New York Times best-seller Necessary Losses. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband.

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

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.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Foreword

by Judith Viorst

While I was reading the pages of this book, I found myself leafing through family photograph albums. I paused to examine a picture of my youngest son, Alexander, who had been immortalized at his sartorial worst. He wore two unmatched socks and a pair of untied sneakers. His hair was alarmingly tousled; his face was smudged. His shorts were droopy and wrinkled, and from them dangled not just one, but two torn pockets. And his T-shirt boldly displayed the bright-red signature of a recent spaghetti dinner.

I looked at that picture and winced, and then I shuddered, and then I sighed and then-all of a sudden-I started to laugh. "Neatness," I observed to myself, quoting a line from this oh-so-helpful collection, "was not one of the things he aimed at in life." Once again I had discovered, in a children's book, exactly what I needed.

I have been, all my life, a passionate lover of children's books-as a little girl; as a more-or-less adult woman; as a mother and grandmother; as an unpublished and, eventually (after eternities of rejection), published writer; and as a children's book editor. In my editing days-and perhaps it's still true, though I hope not-the children's book department was the patronized kid sister of the far more important, and self-important, adult book department, where, it was deemed, the serious action took place. I didn't-and don't-accept that point of view.

For I've always believed that, at their best, the language and the art of books for children are as good as it gets. At their best, the subjects treated in these books include almost all of our central human concerns. At their best, children's books offer insights we'll want to remember and ponder and savor and learn from and revel in. But you don't have to take my word for it; between the covers of this charming book are some of the countless treasures that writings for children offer to both kids and adults.

You will surely find words that speak to your condition. You may choose, for instance, to contemplate the solemnity of "Every passage has its price" or to let yourself be tickled by the deadpan humor of "It is helpful to know the proper way to behave, so one can decide whether or not to be proper." You may nod your head in agreement with the indisputable truth that "One doesn't contradict a hungry tiger," or with the quiet sagacity of "Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive." You may, when your husband is driving a tad too fast on the superhighway, observe between clenched teeth that "It often takes more courage to be a passenger than a driver." Or you may, like me, find words that will provide you with a cheering new perspective.

Ranging from the highly poetic to the matter of fact, WHAT THE DORMOUSE SAID tells us to choose freedom over safety, to get up when we're knocked down, to remember to take delight where we find it, to recognize what we can and cannot control, to treat people carefully,

Edition details

• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1565124510
• ISBN 13: 9781565124516
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Le-Tan Pierre
• Number of pages: 160