Most Memorable Passages Remembered

The following sentences are the excerpts you submitted as the *most memorable* passages in children's literature.

Feel free to add to this list in the comments at any time. I've put a sidebar link to this post.

When you're done here, you can also take a look at the Funniest Passages from children's literature or the Most Poetic Passages from children's literature.

MOST MEMORABLE PASSAGES:

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As Mo had said: writing stories is a kind of magic, too.

~Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

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But it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.

~Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

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Some pig.

~Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

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Everything has got a moral, if only you can find it.

~Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

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The Duchess: Be what you would seem to be -- or, if you'd like it put more simply -- Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.

Alice: I think I should understand that better, if I had it written down: but I can't quite follow it as you say it.

~Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

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Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a VERY good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over.

~Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

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Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

~Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll

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That was the thing. You just never knew. Forever was so many different things. It was always changing, it was what everything was really all about. It was twenty minutes, or a hundred years, or just the instant, or any instant I wished would last and last. But there was only one truth about forever that really mattered, and that was this: it was happening. Right then, as I ran with Wes into that bright sun, and every moment afterwards. Look, there. Now. Now. Now.

~The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

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So many versions of just one memory, an yet none of them were right or wrong. Instead, they were all pieces. Only when fitted together, edge to edge, could they even begin to tell the whole story.

~Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

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It wasn't my job to save anyone, anyway. Especially since I hadn't even been able to save myself.

~Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

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It was a beautiful day to grow up.

~Body Bags by Christopher Golden

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A girl looking for emotion could starve in L.A.

It seemed like every month that went by, every day older, life became more complicated. The rule for growing up seemed to be that no choice, no decision worth making was without some cost.

And even the most pleasant of dreams could be painful under the light of the morning sun.

~Sins of the Father by Christopher Golden

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Therein lay the problem.Life had altered in the wildest possible way, but it was imperative that they act as if nothing at all had happened.Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.

~The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard.

~The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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They'd been standing like that for thirty seconds of forever.

~The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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Inside, she said all of it.

~The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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Books and pages and a happy place.

~The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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Don't make me happy. Please, don't fill me up and let me think that something good can come of any of this.

~The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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But a few other visions were there as well.

Come with me and I'll tell you a story.

I'll show you something.

~The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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And here are the things I know: Time will never be what my watch says. Time passes too fast when you just want it to stop, and time passes too slow when all you wish for is a lifetime in a minute. It'll just never be what it really is, hands moving on a clock.

~Upstream by Melissa Lion

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"You could fill a book with the things you haven't seen." (Farouk)

"Books are already filled with them," I said, "And posters and television shows." (Sam)

~Swollen by Melissa Lion

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I counted in fours because if I stopped, the tears in my eyes would spill over.

~Swollen by Melissa Lion

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And so I waited in the library and touched the spines of the books I should have read long ago to make myself smart, to keep up with him.

~Swollen by Melissa Lion

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I turned the light off and listened in the silence for the voices of people I had loved within these walls.

~Swollen by Melissa Lion

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It's not home. It's people in a house.

~Wild Roses by Deb Caletti

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She kicked her heels like a little girl and waited for something to happen.

~The Nine Lives of Chloe King: The Stolen by Celia Thomson

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But I guess you don't see the planets when you're staring at the sun. You just get blindsided.

~Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

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I wonder if the ducks have missed me.

~The Pursuit of Happiness by Tara Altebrando

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"Courage is fear holding out for just a few minutes longer."

Quit It by Marcia Byalick

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Give me a glass slipper and I'd twist my ankle and shatter the shoe.

~Light Years by Tammar Stein

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That's the trouble with loving a wild thing. You're always left watching the door.

But you also get kind of used to it.

~East by Edith Pattou

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. . . But when a house is empty, then it's the house's turn. It holds all the emptiness and all the fullness of the years it has known, the footprints of all the people who have ever walked its rooms gather themselves. The air is expectant, waiting. Hushed. Hush. Listen to the house. What is it telling you?

~All Rivers Flow to the Sea by Alison McGhee

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You think you know your possibilities.

Then other people come into your life.

And suddenly there are so many more.

~The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan

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In the library, Tiny is like a secret princess.

~The Queen of Cool by Cecil Castellucci

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The contentedness of the cat brought a smile to my face.

~AutumnQuest by Terie Garrison

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We got to pick at the last meeting. The ones who wanted to be Good got to stand in one corner of the room, the ones who wanted to be Evil in the other. The ones who wanted to be Good & Popular went to the third corner, and the ones who wanted to be Useful in the fourth.

~You & You & You by Per Nilsson

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See, I think it's important to know someone's story.

~Penny From Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm

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I was born singing. Most babies cry. I sang an aria.

~Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

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I'd have a stable full of Arabian steeds, rooms piled with books, and I'd write out of a magic inkstand, so that my works should be as famous as Laurie's music. I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle - something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead. I don't know what, but I'm on the watch for it, and mean to astonish you all some day. I think I shall write books, and get rich and famous: that would suit me, so that is my favorite dream.

~Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

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"Get out of my way, you cakesniffers!" said a rude, violent and filthy little girl.

~The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket

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There are few sights sadder than a ruined book.

~The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

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A new experience can be extremely pleasurable or extremely irritable, or somewhere in between, and you never know until you try it out.

~The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket

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I used to think there were words for everything, in poems and books and plays that famous people had written, but there aren't. Words can help you to remember what it feels like to do things, but it's doing the things in the first place that counts. I don't want Words, Words, Words anymore, I want Life, Life, Life -- actual real reality.

~The Actual Real Reality of Jennifer James by Gillian Shields

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"I'm sorry for arriving unannounced," said the bear. "The wind carried my umbrella all the way from my backyard to your backyard. I thought I would retreive it before it became a nuisance." He spoke with a slight panda accent.

Michael introduced himself. Then Addy introduced Karl because Karl was shy around bears he didn't know.

And this is how Addy, Michael, and Karl met Stillwater.

~Zen Shorts by Jon Muth

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There is no such thing as a perfect book or a perfect story.

~Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine

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I expect to be learning to write till I die.

~Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine

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"The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."

And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at least they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

~The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

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My name is Junie B. Jones. The B stands for Beatrice. Except I don't like Beatrice. I just like B and that's all.

~Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park

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Wilbur never forgot Charlotte. Although he loved her children and grandchildren dearly, none of the new spiders ever quite took her place in his heart. She was in a class by herself. It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.

~Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

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It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.

~Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

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“There are all kinds of courage,” said Dumbledore, smiling. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”

~Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

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“The truth.” Dumbledore sighed. “It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.”

~Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

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Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign . . . to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever.

~Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

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That's what Hermione does. When in doubt, go to the library.

~Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling

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My fingers tingle to grasp a pen — my brain teems with plots. I’ve a score of fascinating dream characters I want to write about. Oh, if there only were not such a chasm between seeing a thing and getting it down on paper!

~Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery

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To die will be an awfully big adventure.

~Peter Pan by James M. Barrie

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“What do these children do without storybooks?” Naftali asked.

And Reb Zebulun replied: “They have to make do. Storybooks aren’t bread. You can live without them.”

“I couldn’t live without them,” Naftali said.

~Naftali and the Storyteller and His Horse, Sus by Isaac Bashevis Singer

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She wished she was a famous writer already, and didn’t have to go through the unfamous stage.

~Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett

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On every hand were what looked like thousands of books, ranged on shelves, stacks and stacks of them.

“Think of all those that we haven’t read yet!” said Abbie.

“Maybe some of them have magic inside, too!” said Fredericka.

“All of them, I should think,” said Barnaby, “one way or another.”

~Seven Day Magic by Edward Eager

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“I’m sure Aslan would have, if you’d asked him,” said Fledge.

“Wouldn’t he know without being asked?” said Polly.

“I’ve no doubt he would,” said the Horse. “But I’ve a sort of idea he likes to be asked.”

~The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis

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And then, I pulled out my notebook and wrote, and wrote, and wrote . . . The words moved like wheels across the paper. I didn’t count pages or minutes. Mom tapped on my door, and only then did I notice the sun had gone down and I was writing nearly in the dark . . . Where had I been?

“You’ve been sitting in here forever.” My mother flicked on the light switch and squinted at me. Had I? It was like magic, like Rip Van Winkle, who fell asleep and found himself a hundred years older when he opened his eyes.

~Sahara Special by Esme Raji Codell

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Whatever he began to write seeped out of his head like ink running on damp paper. Where were the words he wanted? Why did they stay as dead as dry leaves?

~Inkspell by Cornelia Funke

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“Oh, Sara. It is like a story.”

“It is a story . . . everything is a story — I am a story. Miss Minchin is a story.”

~The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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Because on some level, even though it never turns out to be true, and even though I should know better, I still expect life to be like the movies.

~The Boy Book by E. Lockhart

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Grown-ups were always worrying about money, she knew that, but what did you need if you could eat and sit in front of the fire and read books? That was what Silver would do with her money.

~Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson

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A beginning and an ending, though satisfying in their own individual ways, are simply that. A start and a conclusion, nothing more. It’s what comes in between that does the work, that builds the life and tells the story.

~Golden by Cameron Dokey

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“Any writer who really has the fire within him will find time to write, Julie,” said Uncle Haskell with the air of a man who knew that fire well. “What about Coleridge and Stevenson, what about dozens of others, sick in body and mind, suffering acute pain, but still finding the time and energy to write?”

~Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt

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Margaret gripped herself in front.

“Do you know, I feel odd here. Do you think I’m going to be sick?”

Mrs. Beamish laughed.

“Not you. Just a bit of nerves that is. Put one foot on stage and it will all be gone.”

What Mrs. Beamish said proved quite true. The moment Margaret walked onto the stage all the funny feeling was gone.

~Thursday’s Child by Noel Streatfeild

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It is difficult for anyone to be a success in Shakespeare because there are so many people who love all Shakespeare’s work and have strong ideas as to how the different parts should be played.

~Theater Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

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Odd as it may seem, there is a satisfaction unlike any other in creating an imaginary world and in pretending to be someone you are not.

~Shakespeare’s Scribe by Gary Blackwood

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When I got well into a part, my awareness of everything outside the boundaries of the stage faded away. The only thing real to me was the world of the play. It was like slipping into a two-hour dream.

~Shakespeare’s Scribe by Gary Blackwood

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“The Germans are dangerous,” he said seriously. “They can do terrible things to you and to all of us, because they have all the weapons. We have nothing.”

Charles stopped pacing and looked down at Dirk Jan.

“Yes, you have,” he said quietly. “You have right on your side. That’s the biggest weapon.”

~The Winged Watchman by Hilda von Stockum

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Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might be flying about with me saying funny things to the stars.

~Peter Pan by James Barrie

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"Once upon a time," she said, "there was a princess who knew she was meant for more than twirling her tresses and swooning."

~The Runaway Princess by Kate Coombs

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Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

~Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll

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The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances.

~To Build a Fire by Jack London

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Slow and steady wins the race.

~The Hare and the Tortoise by Aesop

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"It must be inconvenient to be made of flesh," said the Scarecrow thoughtfully, "for you must sleep, and eat and drink. However, you have brains, and it is worth a lot of bother to be able to think properly."

~The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.

~I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

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I have the most wonderful library. Everyone falls in love with it. It's like a field of poppies - no one ever wants to leave.

~Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley M. M. Blume

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She was born Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, and she did not open her eyes for three days.

~Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

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To comprehend the difference between sentimentality and sentiment is the very kernel of wisdom, the true center of any worthwhile tale told.

~Cromwell’s Boy by Erik Christian Haurgaard

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Mommy and Daddy often say: ‘Post nubila, Phoebus,’ which is Latin, Mimmy, and it means: After the clouds comes the sun.

~Zlata’s Diary - A Child’s Life in Sarajevo by Zlata Filipovic

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. . . Which would you rather be if you had the choice--divinely beautiful or dazzlingly clever or angelically good?

~Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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Gilbert Blythe wasn't used to putting himself out to make a girl look at him and meeting with failure. She SHOULD look at him, that red-haired Shirley girl with the little pointed chin and the big eyes that weren't like the eyes of any other girl in Avonlea school.

~Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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Avonlea school always enjoyed a scene. This was an especially enjoyable one.

~Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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Anne felt that life was really not worth living without puffed sleeves.

~Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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. . . Were we really there half an hour? It seemed just a few minutes. But, you see, we have five years' lost conversations to catch up with, Marilla.

~Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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. . . and thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.

~Peter Pan by James Barrie

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You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.

~Peter Pan by James Barrie

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The sun sets in the west (just about everyone knows that), but Sunset Towers faced east. Strange!

~The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

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Who were these people, these specially selected tenants? They were mothers and fathers and children. A dressmaker, a secretary, an inventor, a doctor, a judge. And, oh yes, one was a bookie, one was a burglar, one was a bomber, and one was a mistake. Barney Northrup had rented one of the apartments to the wrong person.

~The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

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". . . And how is your pretty sister, the bomber?"Turtle never knew he knew.

~The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

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Turtle turned to the window. The sun was rising out of Lake Michigan. It was tomorrow. It was the Fourth of July.

~The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

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"Hi there, Alice," T. R. Wexler said. "Ready for a game of chess?"

~The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

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"For how long?" I ask Papa,
trying to sound brave.

"Until . . .
Until . . ."
Papa pauses and looks at the ceiling
as if the answer to my question is above us.

Finally he tells me he just doesn't know the answer,
that these days we cannot plan the future
but instead must go day to day,
trusting that there will be an end to this situation,
that a better life is ahead.

~Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy

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"Don't go for normal," Ari suggests. "Go for happy. Go for what want it to be instead of settling for what it is."

~Are We There Yet? by David Levithan

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For me, they are one more thing that belongs in someone else's story.

~Stay With Me by Garret Freymann-Weyr

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This ring was my sister's, and if once I wished she'd given it to me, I'll wear it forever precisely because she didn't.

~Stay With Me by Garret Freymann-Weyr

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Suddenly he was aware with certainty and joy that below, ahead, they were waiting for him; and that they were waiting, too, for the baby. For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing.

Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps it was only an echo.

~The Giver by Lois Lowry

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"And oh, Aunt Em! I'm so glad to be at home again!"

~The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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Mischief managed.

~Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

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Most Poetic Passages Illuminated

The following beautiful sentences are the excerpts you submitted as the *most poetic* passages in children's literature.

Feel free to add to this list in the comments at any time. I've put a sidebar link to this post.

Still to come - the Most Memorable passages from children's literature.

When you're done here, you can also take a look at the Funniest Passages from children's literature and the Most Memorable Passages from children's literature.

MOST POETIC PASSAGES:

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I love it that as a writer you work with the poetry and music of words. Words are as wild as rocky peaks. They're as smooth as a millpond and as sunny as a day in a meadow. Words are beautiful things. Every word matters.

~The Wand in the Word by Leonard S. Marcus

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.....the simple little words came easily, fitting themselves to the tune that had come out of the harpsichord. It didn't seem to her that she made them up at all. It seemed to her that they flew in from the rose-garden, through the open window, like a lot of butterflies, poised themselves on the point of her pen, and fell off it on to the paper.

~The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge

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The "Avenue," so called by the Newbridge people, was a stretch of road four or five hundred yards long, completely arched over with huge, wide-spreading apple-trees, planted years ago by an eccentric old farmer. Overhead was one long canopy of snowy fragrant bloom. Below the boughs the air was full of a purple twilight and far ahead a glimpse of painted sunset sky shone like a great rose window at the end of a cathedral aisle.

~Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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It was a beautiful day to grow up.

~Body Bags by Christopher Golden

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She did not produce it easily, but when it came, she had a starving smile.

~The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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After all, the guilt was already there. It was moist. The seed was already bursting into a dark-leafed flower.

~The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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Words and sunlight. That's how she remembered it. The light sparkling on the road and the words like waves, breaking on her back.

~The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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They'd been standing like that for thirty seconds of forever.

~The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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Now it was only noise and girl and wiry woman.

~The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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But maybe supposed to be was what was wrong. Maybe supposed to be was like a child's drawing of a night sky -- stars all aligned, a yellow moon -- simple and pretty and nothing to do with reality.

~Wild Roses by Deb Caletti

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But because our words are clicking into each other to form sentences and our sentences are clicking together to form a dialogue and our dialogue is clicking together to form this scene from this ongoing movie that's as comfortable as it is unrehearsed.

~Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

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The shuddering little pool of light that traveled just ahead of her had started out pretty dim, and it was fading out like Tinkerbell full of poisoned cake.

~Midnighters: Touching Darkness by Scott Westerfeld

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She might be half-magic, but she was also half glass.

~Where I Want to Be by Adele Griffin

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Dreams grabbed at the corner of my eyes but still wouldn't come fully.

~Mermaid Park by Beth Mayall

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That's the trouble with loving a wild thing. You're always left watching the door.

But you also get kind of used to it.

~East by Edith Pattou

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She was just another person floating down the river of life who had grabbed on to a spar and was hanging on - hanging on because she dared not let go. Like everyone else here, she lacked the strength to swim.

~Poison by Chris Wooding

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She's a body made to move, made for motion. Stillness? No. Never.

~All Rivers Flow to the Sea by Alison McGhee

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. . . But when a house is empty, then it's the house's turn. It holds all the emptiness and all the fullness of the years it has known, the footprints of all the people who have ever walked its rooms gather themselves. The air is expectant, waiting. Hushed. Hush. Listen to the house. What is it telling you?

~All Rivers Flow to the Sea by Alison McGhee

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It was dark outside, and the fireflies twinkled gold against the asphalt. When I was little I'd thought fireflies were fairies. I thought if I caught one and held on to it long enough, it would turn into Tinker Bell and make me fly.

~Anyone But You by Lara M. Zeises

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She was so light, but her emotions were heavy.

~The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan

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Isn't it odd how much fatter a book gets when you've read it several times?...As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells...and then when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you, like a pressed flower... both strange and familiar.

~Inkspell by Cornelia Funke

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The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone...

~Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

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The morning was enough to make anyone feel joyous. The tawny grass was still crisp and sparkling with frost under the pony’s flying feet, and overhead the swelling buds on the trees, just catching the rising sun, were ruby red against a sky of sheeted gold. The air was like wine, warm and yet still laced with the sharp tang of the frost.

~The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge

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“It is raining tonight and it sounds like fairies feet dancing over the garret roof.”

~Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery

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“I shall always think of the wind as a personality. She is a shrew when she blows from the north — a lonely seeker when she blows from the east — a laughing girl when she comes from the west — and tonight from the south a little grey fairy.”

~Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery

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The peaks and valleys of the mermaids’ city, which had seemed uniformly aquamarine at a distance, were up close covered in great rolling fields of luminescent blue-green seaweed, but sprinkled and swirled liberally throughout were dots of pink and purple, spirals of yellow and orange, bursts of red, muted brown-orange patches, dribbles of emerald teardrops, and clouds of translucent white pearliness.

~Drift House: The First Voyage by Dale Peck

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The sky was a ragged blaze of red and pink and orange, and its double trembled on the surface of the pond like color spilled from a paintbox. The sun was dropping far now, a soft red sliding egg yolk, and already to the east there was a darkening purple.

~Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

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Every childhood seems to have such a juvenile in its midst and mists.

~The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

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A silent snow fell all night long. It lay like lace along the trees. It hatted the houses. It capsuled the cars in thick and sticky white. A lumbering plow came rumbling, rattling, pushing up hillsides, up mountains, up snow, rolling and rounding it, mounding it high in creamy waves of white.

~This Place in the Snow by Rebecca Bond

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Far, far out to sea, land is only a memory, and empty sky touches water. Just beneath the surface is a tangle of weed and driftwood where tiny creatures cling.

~One Tiny Turtle by Nicola Davies

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A bat is born
Naked and blind and pale.
His mother makes a pocket of her tail
And catches him.
He clings to her long fur
By his thumbs and toes and teeth.
And then the mother dances through the night
Doubling and looping, soaring, somersaulting--
Her baby hangs on underneath...

~The Bat-Poet by Randall Jarrell

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In the dining room, there was so much food. There was a whole fried fish--crispy and brown, meat dumplings fried golden, vegetables shining with oil, steamed buns that looked like puffy clouds, shrimp in a milky sauce, and pork colored a brilliant ruby pink.

~The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin

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Her beady eyes open. Her pixie ears twitch. She shakes her thistledown fur. She unfurls her wings, made of skin so fine the finger bones inside show through.

Now she unhooks her toes and drops into black space. With a sound like a tiny umbrella opening, she flaps her wings.

~Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies

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In the chilly morning,
soft fog paints the garden gray.
Pink petals drift from the trees, and leaves dangle, damp with dew.

~Dancers in the Garden by Joanne Ryder

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Gently the warm sun touches the sleeping bird, till he stirs, stretching his wings like a small dark fan and flies into the brightness.

~Dancers in the Garden by Joanne Ryder

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Dancing in the brightness,
hummingbird dips down
where silken webs dangle,
trapping tiny flowers.

~Dancers in the Garden by Joanne Ryder

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That done, they howled at a rising crescent moon that was thin as a fingernail clipping, orange as a pumpkin headed for pie.

~Horns and Wrinkles by Joseph Helgerson

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It was the longest day: mindlessly hot, unspeakably hot, too hot to move or even think. The countryside, the village of Treegap, the wood - all lay defeated. Nothing stirred. The sun was a ponderous circle without edges, a roar without a sound, a blazing glare so thorough and remorseless that even in the Foster’s parlor, with curtains drawn, it seemed an actual presence. You could not shut it out.

~Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

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He wandered back and forth from Grandma to his father. Penny sat sunken quiet in a padded chair in the front room. Shadows lay over him and absorbed him. There was not here the excitement of a visit to the Forresters. There was instead a snugness that covered him like a warm quilt in winter.

~The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

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Slowly dusk pours the syrup of darkness into the forest.

~Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher

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With invisible arms dawn erases the stars fom the blackboard of night.

~Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher

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It's early morning at the seashore and it's hard to tell where the sea stops and the sky begins.

They are the same smoky gray until the mist shifts from gray to dark white, from dark white to pale purple, from pale purple to hazy blue, and then suddenly, the sun breaks through!

~The Seashore Book by Charlotte Zolotow

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The sun climbs high into the blue sky. By mid-morning a thousand tiny streams run from the roof like a curtain of crystal beads.

~Spring Thaw by Steven Schnur

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In the beginning, there was nothing but darkness and water that lay cold and still as black marble. Nothing moved in the inky silence.

~The Star Bearer: A Creation Myth from Ancient Egypt by Dianne Hofmeyr

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And when the cool autumn winds would come puff-puffing through the clouds, and the hold-on-tight leaves would finally let go and float-flutter to the ground, out we'd go into the eye-blinking blue air, with Mama leading in a leaf-kicking

leg-lifting

hand-clapping

hello autumn ballet.

~My Mama had a Dancing Heart by Libba Gray

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The last drops of the thundershower had hardly ceased falling when the Pedestrian stuffed his map into his pocket, settled his pack more comfortably on his tired shoulders, and stepped out from the shelter of a large chestnut-tree into the middle of the road. A violent yellow sunset was pouring through a rift in the clouds to westward, but straight ahead over the hills the sky was the colour of dark slate. Every tree and blade of grass was dripping, and the road shone like a river . . .

~Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

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This was how we'd always played.
You were Cinderella, I was a mouse.
You were Alice, I was the Hatter.
You were the sun, and I wasn't even the moon.

~The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan

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You think you know your possibilities.
Then other people come into your life.
And suddenly there are so many more.

~The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan

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The girl let the braid drop back with a sigh that seemed to come from her very toes and to exhale forth all the sorrows of the ages.

"Yes, it's red," she said resignedly. "Now you see why I can't be perfectly happy. Nobody could who has red hair. I don't mind the other things so much--the freckles and the green eyes and my skinniness. I can imagine them away. I can imagine that I have a beautiful rose-leaf complexion and lovely starry violet eyes. But I CANNOT imagine that red hair away. I do my best. I think to myself, `Now my hair is a glorious black, black as the raven's wing.' But all the time I KNOW it is just plain red and it breaks my heart. It will be my lifelong sorrow. I read of a girl once in a novel who had a lifelong sorrow but it wasn't red hair.Her hair was pure gold rippling back from her alabaster brow. What is an alabaster brow? I never could find out. Can you tell me?"

~Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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There was a freshness in the airas of a wind that had blown over honey-sweet fields of clover. Home lights twinkled out here and there among the homestead trees. Beyond lay the sea, misty and purple, with its haunting, unceasing murmur. The west was a glory of soft mingled hues, and the pond reflected them all in still softer shadings. The beauty of it all thrilled Anne's heart, and she gratefully opened the gates of her soul to it.

~Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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" . . . a sweet, wicked smile, full of mischief and hope."

~Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman

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In the end, I'm just a girl on a sleeping bag in the middle of nowhere, at the starting line of every mistake she'll ever make.

~The Geography of Girlhood by Kirsten Smith

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Tucked under its gnarled roots, small creatures found safety from the fox and owl. Slowly, slowly, over the years the forest soil increased as the brown, leathery leaves, shaken down by autumn winds, moldered under the snow.

~The Gift of the Tree by Alvin Tresselt

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On the trunk where the tree lay half buried in the damp and musty leaf loam, the mosses stitched a green carpet, softer than the softest wool. Fragile ferns nestled in its shadow, mushrooms popped out of the decaying mold, and clumps of creamy white Indian pipes clustered together, drawing nourishment from the rich loam.

~The Gift of the Tree by Alvin Tresselt

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I arrived when Rebecca's life was more than half over, and my share of what she leaves behind is therefore small. Just big enough to carry.

~Stay With Me by Garret Freymann-Weyr

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We will not just do everything wrong. We will need entirely new verbs.

~Stay With Me by Garret Freymann-Weyr

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When the sun hides behind dark rooftops, you can step outside and see the night begin.

All around you, grayness is creeping,
darkening the wood fence,
darkening the green bushes, darkening the tall roosting tree.

~Step Into the Night by Joanne Ryder

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A chunk of moon shines above the treetops. One tiny light peeks through the evening sky and flickers brightly far, far away.

~Step Into the Night by Joanne Ryder

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Clouds capture the chunk of moon, but it escapes for a moment. The moonlight reveals a patch of lace across an empty space. You move closer and watch a fat body with so many legs climbing in circles around and around a pale silken web.

~Step Into the Night by Joanne Ryder

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White petals float down like late spring snow on a thick green carpet. Someone new peeks out from a dark tunnel into the sun. A young woodchuck with tiny bright eyes watches new things--shadows flickering; petals drifting down, you, passing by.

~Under Your Feet by Joanne Ryder

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Like chilly mornings, fall apples taste sharp and cool. Your fingers slide around the smooth bright ball. Your tongue tingles with the juicy taste of fall.

~Under Your Feet by Joanne Ryder

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One gray day you can hear autumn honking across the sky. You see winter rising from chimneys in dark gray puffs. Now the world seems quiet, everyone seems far away but you.

~Under Your Feet by Joanne Ryder

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Funniest Passages Unveiled

Here they are, the excerpts you submitted as the funniest passages in children's literature.

Also, feel free to add to this list in the comments. At any time. I've put a link in the sidebar to this post.

Still to come - the Most Memorable passages from children's literature.

When you're done here, you can also take a look at the Most Poetic Passages from children's literature and the Most Memorable Passages from children's literature.

FUNNIEST PASSAGES:

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A liar may have her story straight, but if she can't control her face, she'll be as easy to spot as a soap opera star in a Shakespeare play.

~Kiki Strike by Kirsten Miller

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"Anne Shirley, what have you done to your hair? Why, it's GREEN!"

Green it might be called, if it were any earthly color--a queer, dull, bronzy green, with streaks here and there of the original red to heighten the ghastly effect. Never in all her life had Marilla seen anything so grotesque as Anne's hair at that moment.

"Yes, it's green," moaned Anne. "I thought nothing could be as bad as red hair. But now I know it's ten times worse to have green hair. Oh, Marilla, you little know how utterly wretched I am."

~Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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"And you would hug the devil if he gave you cookies." - Sabrina to her younger sister Daphne

~The Sisters Grimm #1: The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley

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"A bunny!" Daphne cried, as she knelt down to pet it. "I love him!"The rabbit snapped at her finger and let out a horrible, angry hiss."An evil bunny," the little girl said, yanking her finger away.

~The Sisters Grimm #2: The Unusual Suspects by Michael Buckley

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" . . . I'm a seven-year-old girl," Daphne said. "Do you know how important bunny rabbits are to me?"

~The Sisters Grimm #2: The Unusual Suspects by Michael Buckley

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Salt. Wound. Together at last.

~13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

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What setting did you use to wash your octopus?

~13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

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I forgive you, busy man about town with the sharp elbows.

~Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

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"Nice horsie," said Batty hopefully.

~The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall

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Batty knew this was no horse. She suddenly knew lots of things she hadn't known a minute ago...
~The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall

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Poor bull. He had simply wanted to quietly munch daisies in the sunshine, and now his private paradise was full of active and extremely noisy creatures.

~The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall

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He's so emo he's practically a Muppet .

~Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

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I put them all on my list of those needing paper cuts.

~Circle the Soul Softly by Davida Wills Hurwin

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"Some people name their guinea pigs, I name my ax - big whoop.”

~Amazing Grace by Megan Shull

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Another bad day that was dreamed up by Satan when he was in a REALLY bad mood.

~Planet Janet in Orbit by Dyan Sheldon

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It's like I'm a crow, drawn to shiny things.

~The Principles of Love by Emily Franklin

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Monkeys, you couldn't have stepped in here to at least make me say something clever? Monkeys? Hello?

~Bad Kitty by Michele Jaffe

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Well, look at that. The monkeys were back and channeling Noir films of 1940s.

~Bad Kitty by Michele Jaffe

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"My inner raccoon likes the shiny thing," he said while looking apologetic.

~The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

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"He's going to need a car for my plan. It doesn't have to be a really good car."

~The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

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After the nachos he felt much better about the whole thing and made up songs about silverware (a tune called "My Name is Spoony McForkenknife" was her favorite) as he did his side work.

~The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

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"There are four of us," he said. "We operate in secret, under a cloak of darkness."

~The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

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"We have a lot in common. You breathe air. I breathe air. You're the gorgeous and super-talented head of student counsel. I look like I'm twelve and I'm part of a secret society that changes the letters in signs. Or a sign. You're going to Stanford. I might get into SUNY Purchase. I think it could work."

~The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

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"What page of the script are you on?" Parker asked. "I think I just walked into a very special episode of Seventh Heaven."

~The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

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"If you can do that, then I'll do anything you want, because that means you have magical powers."

~The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

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"I dare you to make Mel stop OCDing around the room."

~The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

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Alice did not wish to offend the Dormouse again, so she began very cautiously: "But I don't understand. Where did they draw the treacle from?"

"You can draw water out of a water-well," said the Hatter; "so I should think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well -- eh, stupid?"

~Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

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The book was long, and difficult to read, and Klaus became more and more tired as the night wore on. Occasionally his eyes would close. He found himself reading the same sentence over and over. He found himself reading the same sentence over and over. He found himself reading the same sentence over and over.

~The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

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"I had a wonderful dream where I sneezed without covering my mouth and nose, and gave everyone germs!"

~The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket

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If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats.

~The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

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“Everything went right until I saw Marilla coming with the plum pudding in one hand and the pitcher of pudding sauce WARMED UP, in the other. Diana, that was a terrible moment. I remembered everything and I just stood up in my place and shrieked out `Marilla, you mustn't use that pudding sauce. There was a mouse drowned in it. I forgot to tell you before.'”

~Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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I am a bachelorette. A bachelorette is when your boyfriend named Ricardo dumps you at recess.
~Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park

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Chaphesmeeso, who never looked impressed, nearly had to lie down to show how specifically unimpressed he was.

~Clemency Pogue and the Hobgoblin Proxy by J. T. Petty

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The hobgoblins, the girl, and the increasingly impatient fairy watched from behind the bottom half of a door that opened like a scandalous bathing suit, intwo pieces. This being France, the top was open.

~Clemency Pogue and the Hobgoblin Proxy by J. T. Petty

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"I've come to the rescue!" Kenn had proudly whispered, clutching the jar between his knees, and with both hands unscrewing the lid.There was a principle at work here, an equal and opposite reaction for every action. The jar was unscrewed, and Kenn was quite the opposite.

~Clemency Pogue and the Hobgoblin Proxy by J. T. Petty

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She was so full of rapture that she must write it out before she went back from her world of dreams to the world of reality. Once she would have poured it into a letter to her father. She could no longer do that. But on the table before her lay a brand-new Jimmy-book. She pulled it towards her, took up her pen, and on its first virgin page she wrote.

NEW MOON
BLAIR WATER
P.E. ISLAND

October 8th.

I am going to write a dairy, that it may be published when I die.

~Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery

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"Leven Thumps," he said formally, "I am Geth."Leven didn't know if he felt worse being in the stomach of a snake miles underground or being on top of the soil and realizing his future was dependent on a talking toothpick.

~Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye

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"Mistletoe," said Luna dreamily, pointing at a large clump of white berries placed almost over Harry's head. He jumped out from under it. "Good thinking," said Luna very seriously. "It's often infested with nargles."

~Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling

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"That was funny!"

Her prominent eyes swam with tears as she gasped for breath, staring at Ron. Utterly nonplussed, he looked around at the others, who were now laughing at the expression on Ron's face and at the ludicrously prolonged laughter of Luna Lovegood, who was rocking backwards and forwards, clutching her sides.

"Are you taking the mickey?" said Ron, frowning at her.

"Baboon's … backside!" she choked, holding her ribs.

~Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling

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"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could have been all killed -- or worse, expelled."

~Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

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'Yes,' said Professor Trelawney, nodding impressively, 'it comes, ever closer, it circles overhead like a vulture, ever lower… ever lower over the castle…'

She stared pointedly at Harry, who yawned very widely and obviously.

'It'd be a bit more impressive if she hadn't done it about eighty times before,' Harry said.

~Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling

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Emily loved The Pilgrim’s Progress. Many a time had she walked the straight and narrow path with Christian and Christiana — although she never liked Christiana’s adventures half as well as Christian’s. For one thing, there was always such a crowd with Christiana. She had not half the fascination of that solid, intrepid figure who faced all alone the shadows of the Dark Valley and the encounter with Apollyon. Darkness and hobgoblins were nothing when you had plenty of company. But to be alone — ah, Emily shivered with the delicious horror of it!

~Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery

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(On being seasick) “If you have any friendship for me at all, you will not even speak to me of swallowing anything.”

~Cecy, The Grand Tour by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

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I have often thought that if the people who write children’s books knew a little more it would be better. I shall not tell you anything about us except what I should like to know about if I was reading the story and you were writing it. Albert’s uncle says I ought to have put this in the preface, but I never read prefaces, and it is not much good writing things just for people to skip. I wonder other authors have never thought of this.

~The Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit

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"That's all you know," said Digory. "It's because you're a girl. Girls never want to know anything but gossip and rot about people getting engaged.”

~The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis

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I do not like the way you slide,
I do not like your soft inside,
I do not like you many ways,
And I could do for many days
Without eggs.

~Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban

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As he got closer, Charles could see the blob more clearly — saw it was, in fact, a giant frog, normal looking in every way save for the fact that it was about the size of a Shetland pony and sported two enormous multicolored wings growing from its back — oh, and two antennas as well. Other than that, it was a totally normal giant frog.

~Drift House: The First Voyage by Dale Peck

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“Dad!” cried Beulith. “This is crazy!”
“No, it’s not, honey. It’s theater!”

~No Time Like Show Time by Michael Hoeye

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The feeling often comes over me that I am not at all remarkable; it is fun to plan a career, but in all probability, I shan't turn out a bit different from any other ordinary person. I may end by marrying an undertaker and being an inspiration to him in his work.

~Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster

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Aravis immediately began, sitting quite still and using a rather different tone and style from her usual one. For in Calormen, story-telling (whether the stories are real or made up) is a thing you're taught, just as English boys and girls are taught essay-writing. The difference is that people want to hear the stories, whereas I never heard of anyone who wanted to read the essays.

~The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis

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The Herdmans moved from grade to grade through the Woodrow Wilson School like those South American fish that strip your bones clean in three minutes flat...which was just about what they did to one teacher after another.

~The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

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It had never occured to Coraline that the crazy old man upstairs actually had a name, she realized. If she'd known his name was Mr. Bobo she would have said it every chance she got. How often do you get to say a name like "Mr. Bobo" aloud?

~Coraline by Neil Gaiman

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Ferry Port Landing Asylum Patient List--1955

The Mad Hatter--diagnosis: schizophrenia
Chicken Little--diagnosis: panic attacks
Hansel--diagnosis: eating disorder (outpatient)
The White Rabbit--diagnosis: OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder; outpatient)
The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe--diagnosis: exhaustion (outpatient)
Ichabod Crane--diagnosis: night terrors (outpatient)
Little Red Riding Hood--diagnosis: psychosis with delusions and hallucinations, homicidal tendencies

~The Sisters Grimm: The Problem Child by Michael Buckley

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There we were, packed in a black tunnel - with a herd of bullies, one lantern, and a cave cricket who couldn't help lying.

~Horns and Wrinkles by Joseph Helgerson

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If Marilla had said that Matthew had gone to Bright River to meet a kangaroo from Australia Mrs. Rachel could not have been more astonished.

~Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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Anne sat up, tragedy personified."Mrs. Lynde was up to see Mrs. Barry today and Mrs. Barry was in an awful state," she wailed. "She says that I set Diana DRUNK Saturday and sent her home in a disgraceful condition. And she says I must be a thoroughly bad, wicked little girl and she's never, never going to let Diana play with me again. Oh, Marilla, I'm just overcome with woe."

~Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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"How dare you say such things about me?" she repeated vehemently. "How would you like to have such things said about you? How would you like to be told that you are fat and clumsy and probably hadn't a spark of imagination in you? I don't care if I do hurt your feelings by saying so! I hope I hurt them. You have hurt mine worse than they were ever hurt before even by Mrs. Thomas' intoxicated husband. And I'll NEVER forgive you for it, never, never!"

~Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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She was in a jug for the moment, and liking it extremely; she had never been in a jug before.

~Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

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"Could those of us who aren't psychic at least get some subtitles?"

~Blue Noon by Scott Westerfeld

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"I do solemnly swear I am up to no good."

~Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

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