...then you write it for children.

Because everyone should live with a regular dose of children's literature to feed the soul

[therestofyourstory]

Real magic can never be made by offering up someone else’s liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back. The true witches know that.

The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

(via queenofattolia)

[zannaka]

[zzthebean]

Remember how the BFG had dreams he kept in bottles on shelves?

[stephanieall12]

“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”

― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan (via stephanieall12)

[bookdrunkards]

I don’t want to cheer up. It’s nicer to be miserable!

L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (via bookdrunkards)

[quotes-shape-us]

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.

C.S. Lewis (via quotes-shape-us)

[quotethat]

Stories you read when you’re the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes you’ll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit.

Neil Gaiman, M is for Magic (via quotethat)

[explore-blog]

Dare to Disturb the Universe – a long-lost, now found fantastic 1983 lecture by Madeleine L’Engle on creativity, censorship, writing, and the duty of children’s books 

[dreamsandsunflowers]

[disneybakerdcp]

I still have Love You Forever on my bookshelf. That and The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy. Those are my 2 favorites that I’m going to pass onto my own children

[my-midsummer-cloud]

…between their loss of consciousness and its return they had come a long way, because everything was completely different…the mist had gone and the moon was shining…Their depression had completely vanished and their hearts were beating fast with a sense of adventure.

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge (via my-midsummer-cloud)

[toodifficultforgrownups]

“Seeing is not believing - it is only seeing.”

George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin

[toodifficultforgrownups]

BOOK REC: THE MELENDY QUARTET

Yeah this is four books so sue me. 

Plot teaser: Four siblings (Mona, Rush, Randy, and Oliver Melendy) living in New York (and later in the country) in the 1940s and their various adventures: everything from art museums to backyard carnivals to scavenger hunt mysteries. But it all starts with the idea for a Saturday afternoon club called I.S.A.A.C...

First impressions: While this may seem from the outside to be a very calm and relaxed series of books, do not be fooled...

Best points: Extremely realistic characters, hilarious, heartfelt, doesn't talk down to its readership

Worst points: A little dated I guess? Not bad, but yes, the girls do always wear dresses. 

Why I love it: The whole series: The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake (my personal favorite), Then There Were Five, and Spiderweb for Two, is just wonderful. I can't stress enough how realistic these characters are: I've always felt like I actually know all of them (especially Rush and Randy, the middle two children). And they do things that regular kids can do: their activities are usually pretty attainable (which can be nice if you're like me and usually live on a diet of magic and fantasy). They are also hilarious. Seriously, there's this part in the second book where Rush gets sick and feverishly decides to hid in his tree house in the middle of the night...anyway, I legitimately laugh out loud every time. 

DON'T FORGET: To read the whole series! The third book, Then There Were Five, deals with some really interesting social issues, and introduces a WONDERFUL character in Mark Heron, who's significance I won't spoil here...

In Conclusion: Find a lazy Saturday afternoon, pick up The Saturdays, and be prepared to wish you were friends with all of the Melendys growing up. 

[toodifficultforgrownups]

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

C.S. Lewis

[toodifficultforgrownups]

There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting.

L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

[toodifficultforgrownups]

I think everyone in the world is friends if you can only get them to see you don't want to be un-friends.

E. Nesbit, The Railway Children

[toodifficultforgrownups]

In the evening Alice sat on her grandfather’s knee and listened to his stories of faraway places. When he had finished, Alice would say, “When I grow up, I too will go to faraway places, and when I grow old, I too will live beside the sea.” “That is all very well, little Alice,” said her grandfather, “but there is a third thing you must do…You must do something to make the world more beautiful.” “All right,” said Alice. But she did not know yet what that could be.

Barbara Cooney, Miss Rumphius

[toodifficultforgrownups]

Oh my goodness I am so sorry I have neglecting this blog frightfully. But now I am back (with consistent internet hopefully) so expect some more quotes and book recs, and remember that you can always submit! 

[toodifficultforgrownups]

Loneliness had taught Harriet that there was always someone who understood - it was just so often that they were dead, and in a book.

Eva Ibbotson, A Company of Swans