Quoting From Favorite Children's Books

[Saphire]

Do you ever quote from your favorite children's books? I spent so many hours reading to my kids that some phrases are forever in my memory. And now, even though they are grown, I still repeat some of these lines.

-The Little Engine That Could: (When I am dog tired) "I am sooo tired, I must rest my weary wheels."

-Richard Scary: (When we pull in our driveway after a long trip) "Back Safe Home Again"

-Winnie The Pooh: (Thinking about my husband, my kids) "If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you."

What about you, do you have favorite lines from children's books?

 

[perdidobay]

Oh yes! I grew up being read Dr Seuss books and reading them to my children.

I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam I Am.

And lines from the Sneeches
Now the Star-bellied Sneetches had bellies with stars.
The Plain-bellied Sneetches had none upon thars.
The stars weren't so big; they were really quite small.
You would think such a thing wouldn't matter at all.
But because they had stars, all the Star-bellied Sneetches
would brag, "We're the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches."



At one time I knew all the words to "Too Many Daves" It was my dd's favorite....

Did I ever tell you that Mrs. McCave
Had twenty-three sons, and she named them all Dave?
Well, she did. And that wasn't a smart thing to do.
You see, when she wants one, and calls out "Yoo-Hoo!
Come into the house, Dave!" she doesn't get one.
All twenty-three Daves of hers come on the run!

This makes things quite difficult at the McCaves'
As you can imagine, with so many Daves.
And often she wishes that, when they were born,
She had named one of them Bodkin Van Horn.
And one of them Hoos-Foos. And one of them Snimm.
And one of them Hot-Shot. And one Sunny Jim.
And one of them Shadrack. And one of them Blinkey.
And one of them Stuffy. And one of them Stinkey.
Another one Putt-Putt. Another one Moon Face.
Another one Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face.
And one of them Ziggy. And one Soggy Muff.
One Buffalo Bill. And one Biffalo Buff.
And one of them Sneepy. And one Weepy Weed.
And one Paris Garters. And one Harris Tweed.
And one of them Sir Michael Carmichael Zutt.
And one of them Oliver Boliver Butt.
And one of them Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate . . . .
But she didn't do it. And now it's too late.


Now the only part I remember are the last two lines

 

[minkydog]

When we return home: "Home again, home again, jiggety jog"

When it rains: "The rain is raining all around, it falls on field and tree. It falls on the umbrellas here and on the ships at sea"

at the playground: "How do you like to go up in the swing, up in the air so high? I do think it the most wonderful thing ever a child could do. Up in the air and over the wall, til I can see so wide, Rivers and trees and cattle and all over the countryside."

when we have cobbler with ice cream: "The friendly cow all red and white, I love with all my heart. She gives me cream with all her might to eat with apple tart"

When i've got an attitude? "When she was good, she was very very good, but when she is bad she is HORRID"

 

[crazyforgoofy]

For finding your mother
There's one certain test
You must look for the creature
Who loves you the best.
~Miss Spider

 

[agnes!]

Oh YES.

"Forever and ever my baby you'll be."
(melancholy yet comforting)

And then there's the classic...
"The Goops"
The Goops they lick their fingers
and the Goops they like their knoves
They spill their broth on the tablecloth
Oh! They lead disgusting lives.
The Goops they talk while eating
And loud and fast they chew.
And that is why
I'm glad that I
Am not a Goop.
Are you?

agnes!

 

[4nana]

There are so many, but two that come to mind as my little 3yo DGS loves me to read them before his nap:

Guess How Much I Love You

He leaned over and kissed him goodnight. Then he lay down close to me and wispered with a smile,
"I love you right up to the moon and back."


I Love You Little One

Moma says, "Yes little one, I love you as the stars love you, constant and bright above you, giving you joy and peace and wonder. I love you as the stars love you, forever, and ever and always."


I absolutely enjoy reading them to him and afterwards he always gives me a big hug and says...
'I love you so much Nana.'

 

[HunnyPots]

The time has come
The time is now
Just go go go
I don't care how!
- Marvin K Mooney by Dr Seuss

Goodnight Stars
Goodnight Air
Goodnight noises everywhere
- Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

I've got promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep
- Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
(ok, not really a children's book but we used to read it a lot anyway)

 

[EMom]

When DD was little and I'd put her to bed, I'd often say the last line of "I Love You As Much."

"Now sleep, child of mine, while the stars shine above---
I love you as much as a mother can love."

Which is pretty much a version of what my mother frequently said to me...."I love you above all things."

On a lighter note.....When we are housebound by bad weather, I invoke The Cat in the Hat. "So all we could do was to Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! And we did not like it. Not one little bit." Of course if it's a rainy day, I start with, "The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day."

 

[NMAmy]

Oh, heck yes! DD (who is 17) cracked me up in a restaurant recently when she read the menu and I heard her say, "Merry once, Merry twice, Merry chicken soup with rice." Hey, we like Maurice Sendak.

She also had a book she loved called Weird Parents. So when she thinks I'm being odd we'll paraphrase the first line of the book, "Once there was a girl who had Weird Parents."

We also have our favorite lines from Dr. Suess:

I meant what I said and I said what I meant
An elephant's faithful one hundred percent. -Horton Hatches the Egg

I am the Lorax! I speak for the trees! --from our favorite, The Lorax

and, of course, everyone in my entire extended family refers to roast beef as "rare Who roast beast!"

 

[Saphire]

Such great lines, everyone. Here is another poem burned in my memory. How many hundreds of times did I recite this to my kids?

Sleep my love, and peace attend thee
All through the night;
Guardian angels God will send thee,
All through the night,
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping,
Hill and vale in slumber steeping,
I my loving vigil keeping,
All through the night.

 

[Disney Doll]

You have brains in your head
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
In the direction you choose
You are who you are
And you know what you know
And you are the one who'll decide where you'll go!

-Dr.Seuss "Oh The Places You'll Go!"

 

[frndofpooh]

"We'll eat you up we love you so!" - Maurice Sendak, Where The Wild Things Are

"Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout would not take the garbage out!" - From Shel Silverstein's poem by the same name. Sure to be heard around here when I come home late and the garbage is overflowing!

"No stars upon thars" - From the Sneetches

 

[goofy4tink]

A person's a person, no matter how small...Horton Hears a Who. I tend to sing it rather than speak it though.

 

[Tink_Or_Belle]

when someone is having a bad day we always say I think I'll move to Australia(Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day)

we must REALLY like Alexander because another favorite is

"I NEEDED that _______" from Alexander Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday the line is from where he is trying to save his money but goes to a garage sale and buys a bunch of weird stuff and justifies it with I needed that bear ... we use it when we buy something we don;t really NEED but buy anyway

we also use

"I love you to the moon and back" (Guess how Much I live you)

"You Can't Teach a Sneetch"
"A Persons a person no matter how small"
and finally
Oh Save me from those Pale green pants with nobody inside them

(all Suess)

 

[Tink_Or_Belle]

oh also when I was a kid we used to quote a poem called something like choosing shoes we would say it whenever we went shoe shoping but I can't quote it anymore I should google it. Google is my freind right?

ah that was too easy here it is let me have a fast childhood flashback

Choosing Shoes
by Frida Wolfe

New shoes, new shoes,
Red and pink and blue shoes.
Tell me, what would you choose,
If they'd let us buy?

Buckle shoes, bow shoes,
Pretty pointy-toe shoes,
Strappy, cappy low shoes;
Let's have some to try.

Bright shoes, white shoes,
Dandy-dance-by-night shoes,
Perhaps-a-little-tight shoes,
Like some? So would I.

BUT
Flat shoes, fat shoes,
Stump-along-like-that shoes,
Wipe-them-on-the-mat shoes,
That's the sort they'll buy

 

[OceanAnnie]

I have always loved the book, The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

Here is one quote from the book:

"My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained."

 

[Philadisney]

I always quote Alice in Wonderland when I am confused about something (which happens a lot )...."Curiouser and curiouser.."

 

[ZephyrHawk]

If you have to dry the dishes, such an awful boring chore
If you have to dry the dishes, instead of going to the store
If you have to dry the dishes and you drop one on the floor
Maybe you won't have to dry the dishes anymore- Shel Silverstein

My DH and I always bring this one up while hand washing and drying crystal.

 

[connorlevismom]

Oh yes!

My favorite from Fox in Sox - "oh come now, come now. You don't have to be so dumb now"

Kristine

 

[Buckalew11]

When the Traffic is terrible: "Traffic was awful the bumps were bad too..." ~~Panda Palace

Says thanks to DD: "Thank you, but she has one of those" (or some of that) from some book about a boy who wants to get his mom a gift and goes to animals to find something and ends up with a bear hug)

When it is raining: "A drop of rain fell from the sky and landed Plop in Baby's eye" ~~A Drop of Rain--same author as Fireman Small

When people are pushing in line,"Me first!"~~~ Pinkerton pig in Me First

When looking for our shoes (or anything around the house): "where are my shoes? These are not my shoes these are my (fill in the blank)"~~~Baby Bop in Where Are my Shoes?

"Hundreds of Cats, Thousands of cats, Millions and millions and millions of cats"~~~ Millions of Cats


When declining a request from DD: "No said her mother, no said her Father"~~ one of Kevin Henkes books

When answering DD about time: "Soon said her mother, soon said her father" ~~~A Weekend with Wendell


BTW, have you all read Kevin Henkes kids books? They are the cutest things!