I’m a long time collector of children’s book quotes, so I’ve assembled some of my favorites from classic children’s literature to share.
Book quotes from classic children’s literature are snippets of good writing, so why not use them as exemplars for teaching writing?
Even if you haven’t read any of these classic books (yet), these literary quotes provide plenty of context for understanding.
Here are just a few ideas for using children’s book quotes in a targeted writing mini-lesson:
- voice (compare author voices)
- word choice
- figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, etc.)
- creating visual imagery
- character dialogue
- phrasing
- syntax (word order)
- types of sentences
- sentence punctuation
- point of view (perspective)
- grammar & spelling
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
Ideas to teach?
(metaphor, first person perspective, compound sentence with coordinating conjunction)
“Don’t try to make me grow up before my time…”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
Ideas to teach?
(making inferences, command sentence)
“A conscience is that still small voice that people won’t listen to.”
― Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio
Ideas to teach?
(metaphor)
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.”
― J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan
What to teach?
(making inferences, second person perspective)
“To live will be an awfully big adventure.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
What to teach?
(metaphor, making inferences, syntax)
“If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Ideas to teach? (making inferences, second person perspective, if/then statement with comma)
“I suppose it’s like the ticking crocodile, isn’t it? Time is chasing after all of us.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Ideas to teach? (simile, personification, first person perspective, punctuation: comma, question mark, period, quotation mark)
“It is not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do that is the secret of happiness.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Ideas to teach? (making inferences, syntax, second person perspective)
“There is no place like home.”
― L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Ideas to teach? (making inferences, imperative sentence, text-to-self connection)
“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
Ideas to teach? (metaphor, second person perspective)
“Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
Ideas to teach? (metaphor, making inferences, second person perspective)
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Ideas to teach? (making inferences, first person perspective, hyperbole, compound words)
“No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Ideas to teach? (puns & multiple meaning words)
“You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret: All the best people are.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Ideas to teach? (making inferences, using a colon to connect two sentences, contractions)
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
― L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Ideas to teach? (making inferences, first person perspective)
“True friends are always together in spirit.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Ideas to teach? (making inferences, text-to-self connection)
“People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, haven’t you?”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Ideas to teach? (word repetition (big) for emphasis)
“Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it…yet.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Ideas to teach? (metaphor, making inferences)
“Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Ideas to teach? (making inferences, comma with a dependent clause, -ing verb/suffix)
“It is good people who make good places.”
― Anna Sewell, Black Beauty
Ideas to teach? (making inferences, word repetition (good) for emphasis, text-to-self connections)
“Ignorance is the parent of fear.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
Ideas to teach? (metaphor, making inferences, imperative sentence, word choice)
