“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.”

From: Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss

Originally read at: Age 5

“I wished that the chains would break and the wind would sweep me up, up, up into the sky, beyond the clouds, beyond the sun and the moon, to some marvelous kingdom where no one ever changed and friends were friends for life.” 

From: Daphne’s Book by Mary Downing Hahn

Originally read at: Age 8

“I could tell you my adventures—beginning from this morning,” said Alice a little timidly; “but it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”

From: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Originally read at: Age 12

“It was dusk—winter dusk. Snow lay white and shining over the pleated hills, and icicles hung from the forest trees. Snow lay piled on the dark road across Willoughby Wold, but from dawn men had been clearing it with brooms and shovels. There were hundreds of them at work, wrapped in sacking because of the bitter cold, and keeping together in groups for fear of the wolves, grown savage and reckless from hunger.”

From: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken 

Originally read at: Age 9

“But it isn’t easy,’ said Pooh. ‘Because Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is to go where they can find you.”

From: The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne

Originally read at: Age 5

“To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.”

From: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson

Originally read at: Age 11

“How can you know what is missing if you’ve never met it? You must know of something’s existence before you can notice its absence.”

From: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

Originally read at: Age 8

“You know that place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still remember dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you. That’s where I’ll be waiting.”

From: Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Originally read at: Age 7

“Still, even without the country or a lake, the summer was a fine thing, particularly when you were at the beginning of it, looking ahead into it. There would be months of beautifully long, empty days, and each other to play with, and the books from the library.”

From: Half Magic by Edward Eager

Originally read at: Age 7

“Then I thought, boy, isn’t that just typical? You wait and wait and wait for something, and then when it happens, you feel sad.”

From: Absolutely Normal Chaos by Sharon Creech

Originally read at: Age 9