A Wall of words
By Michael on June 17th, 2011
I hear many of our guests at The Scholastic Store comment on how cool the store looks. After all, we have pictures of characters all around the store, posters of book covers and lifesize sculptures of everyone from Harry Potter to Clifford the Big Red Dog. There’s a giant Magic School Bus and a colorful Imagination Clubhouse where we have our birthday parties.
It’s bright…it’s cheery and it’s fun!
So when we we looking for a way to add something new to the store, we had a really cool idea that I can’t wait to see installed! It’s not about book covers or illustrations, it’s a wall of words! There will be quotes from the children’s books we all love and cherish for our guests to read as they enter the store. This project became much more than a display to me, though. It represented just how powerful these words could be and the lessons they instill. They taught me what a good friend was and that superheroes sometimes aren’t quite what we expect.
So I asked the rest of the OOM team what their favorite book quotes were and here’s a few of their responses:
Morgan said- I still repeat lots of Shel Silverstein to myself, including:
“If you are a dreamer, come in,
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hoper, a prayer, a magic bean buyer,
If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!” — from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Dante shared-
“One needs a town, if only for the pleasure of leaving it. A town means not being alone, knowing that in the people, the trees, the soil, there is something of yourself, that even when you’re not there it stays and waits for you. But it isn’t easy to live there and not be restless.” — from The Moon and the Bonfires by Cesare Pavese
Amanda sent me this quote, which I must admit, made me teary-eyed-
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but Really loves you, then you become Real.” — from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Now that we have shared a few of our favorite quotes, what are some of yours?
And now, in the spirit of this post “Let the wild rumpus start!”
(That’s from Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and a favorite of mine.)
Posted: June 17th, 2011 under Books. Tags: behind the scenes, books, just for fun.
22 comments
Comments
“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” ~Sirius Black, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling,
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 4:26 pm
My favourite quote from Winnie-the-Pooh “You never can tell with bees!”
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 4:27 pm
“I fight for Truth, Justice, and all that is Pre-Shrunk and Cottony!” Captain Underpants
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 4:30 pm
also… from Eric Carle’s Mr. Seahorse …”I do love you, but now you are ready to be on your own.”
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 4:30 pm
“If freedom happens just your way, its not my freedom nor free.” Toni Morrison, “The Big Brown Box”
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 4:32 pm
“Have a carrot.” The Runaway Bunny. Makes me weep.
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 4:40 pm
“Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.”
The Tale of Despereaux
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 4:51 pm
“We’ll eat you up we love you so!” -Where the Wild Things Are
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 4:52 pm
I am a text departer.
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 5:04 pm
“Look at me! Look at me! Look at me now! It’s fun to have fun but you have to know how.” -Dr. Seuss
I often think of this quote as I watch my children play at the playground.
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 5:33 pm
A. A.Milne’s dedication (to his wife) from House on Pooh Corner:
DEDICATION
You gave me Christopher Robin, and then
You breathed new life in Pooh.
Whatever of each has left my pen
Goes homing back to you.
My book is ready, and comes to greet
The mother it longs to see –
It would be my present to you, my sweet,
If it weren’t your gift to me.
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 5:36 pm
From Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, “I think I’ll move to Australia,” and “Some days are like that, even in Australia.”
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 5:37 pm
“You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry. Most people do.” The Phantom Tollbooth
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 6:30 pm
From Dr. Seuss/Theo. Lesig: I Wish The I Had Duck Feet
“AND SO . . . I think there are some things I do not wish to be.
And that is why I think that I just wish to be like me.”
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 6:32 pm
The title of the book should read: I Wish That I Had Duck Feet. Sorry. 
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 6:34 pm
“Success gets to be a habit, like anything else a fellow keeps on doing” Pa to Laura in These Happy Golden Years
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 6:46 pm
“When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies” ~ Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 6:57 pm
“From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!” Dr. Seuss, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 6:58 pm
There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them. -J.K. Rowling
Comment on June 17, 2011 at 11:55 pm
Hagrid in Harry Potter, Year 1: “You’re a wizard, Harry.” For some reason, that line just captures so much hope and wonder to me. You can see it really well in Daniel Radcliffe’s face in the movie version. He hears that from Hagrid and is just like, “Woahhhhhhhh.”
Comment on June 20, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Norton Juster’s Phantom Tollbooth has always meant a lot to me, and this quotation in particular has stuck with me for years:
“You may not see it now,” said the Princess of Pure Reason, looking knowingly at Milo’s puzzled face, “but whatever we learn has a purpose and whatever we do affects everything and everyone else, if even in the tiniest way. Why, when a housefly flaps his wings, a breeze goes round the world; when a speck of dust falls to the ground, the entire planet weighs a little more; and when you stamp your foot, the earth moves slightly off its course. Whenever you laugh, gladness spreads like the ripples in the pond; and whenever you’re sad, no one anywhere can be really happy. And it’s much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer.”
Comment on June 20, 2011 at 3:21 pm
“It does no do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” Dumbledore to Harry Potter
Comment on June 22, 2011 at 3:26 pm
