Gladys M. Hunt > Quotes

“What is home? My favorite definition is "a safe place," a place where one is free from attack, a place where one experiences secure relationships and affirmation. It's a place where people share and understand each other. Its relationships are nurturing. The people in it do not need to be perfect; instead, they need to be honest, loving, supportive, recognizing a common humanity that makes all of us vulnerable.”
― Gladys Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life

“No book is really worth reading at the age of 10 which is not equally worth reading at the age of 50.”
― Gladys Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart

“Books are like people: fascinating, inspiring, thought-provoking, some laugh, some meditate, others ache with old age, but still have wisdom: some are disease-ridden, some deceitful; but others are a delight to behold, and many travel to foreign lands; some cry, some teach, others are lots of fun, they are excellent companions and all have individuality - Books are friends. What person has too many friends?”
― Gladys Hunt

“Grief is like a journey one must take on a winding mountainside, often seeing the same scenery many times, a road which eventually leads to somewhere we've never been before.”
― Gladys M. Hunt

“This savoring of life is no small thing. The element of wonder is almost lost today with the onslaught of the media and gadgets of our noisy world. To let a child lose it is to make him blind and deaf to the best of life.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart

“Some children like how-to-do-it or all-about-everything type books, but I suspect parents like them best because they look so educational. These really should be in a separate category because they don't usually classify and literature but are more nearly manuals of information. Paul Hazard suggests that instead of pouring out so much knowledge on a child's soul that it is crushed, we should plant a seed of an idea that will develop from the inside.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart

“parents who read widely together with their children are going to be those who most influence their children,”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life

“What kind of books? "Sories that make for wonder. Stories that make for laughter. Stories that stir one within with and understanding of the true natures of courage, of love, of beauty. Stories that make one tingle with high adventure, with daring, with grim determination, with the capacity of seeing danger through to the end. Stories that bring our minds to kneel in reverence; stories that show the tenderness of true mercy, the strength of loyalty, the unmawkish respect for what is good.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart

“Reading is a sage way to bump up against life. Reading may be an escape, but it is not an escape from my own life and problems.  It is an escape from the narrow boundaries of being only me. Reading in some wonderful ways helps me find out who I am. When she was a young girl Patricia MacLachlan's mother encouraged her to "read a book and find out who you are." And it is true that in some ways reading defines me as it refines me. Reading enlarges my vision of the world; it helps me understand someone who is different from me. It makes me bigger on the inside. We tend to see the world from our own perspective; it is good to see it from the eyes of others. Good literature helps me understand who I am in relation to what others experience. Far from being an escape from reality, good literature is a window into reality. I read to feel life.”
― Gladys Hunt, Honey for a Woman's Heart: Growing Your World through Reading Great Books

“Every child needs to see the possibilities of being human, watch the consequence of choices, and have their hearts stretched by goodness and courage in action.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life

“Someone once said that the worst features of an era are accented in the children’s books of that period. Book by book our societal problems were dumped into children’s books. What editors called “realism” is really adult betrayal, violence, sexual indiscretions, alcoholism, and the Big D’s: death, divorce, disease, and drugs. Books with inconsequential plots and characters became thinly disguised “moralisms”—the kind of moralisms that come from a nonjudgmental culture urging readers to suspend judgment, to become understanding and noncondemning, and to realize their sexuality.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life

“Literature is the royal road that enables us to enter the realm of the imagination.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life

“In these questions are the three elements which open up any text: Fact-what does it say? Interpretation-what does it mean? Application-what does it mean to me?”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart

“Children have two basic needs, writes Erich Fromm in The Art of Loving: they need both milk and honey from their parents. Milk symbolizes the care given to physical needs: brush your teeth, drink your orange juice, eat your vegetables, get enough sleep. Honey symbolizes the sweetness of life, that special quality that makes life sing with enjoyment for all it holds. Fromm says, “Most parents are capable of giving milk, but only a minority of giving honey, too.” To give honey, one must love honey and have it to give. Good books are rich in honey, and hence the title of this book.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life

“That is what a book does. It introduces us to people and places we wouldn't ordinarily know. A good book is a magic gateway into a wider world of wonder, beauty, delight, and adventure. Books are experiences that make us grow, that add something to our inner stature.”
― Gladys M. Hunt

“What kind of books? 'Stories that make for wonder. Stories that make for laughter. Stories that stir one within with and understanding of the true natures of courage, of love, of beauty. Stories that make one tingle with high adventure, with daring, with grim determination, with the capacity of seeing danger through to the end. Stories that bring our minds to kneel in reverence; stories that show the tenderness of true mercy, the strength of loyalty, the unmawkish respect for what is good.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart

“Children have two basic needs, writes Erich Fromm in the Art of Loving: they need both milk and honey from their parents. Milk symbolizes the care given to physical needs...Honey symbolizes the sweetness of life, that special quality that makes life sing with enjoyment for all it holds. Gromm says, "Most parents are capable of giving milk, but only a minority of giving honey, too." To give honey, one must love honey and have it to give.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart

“We influence by what we are and by what we do. In one sense, it could be said that we influence others simply by being.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life

“Since words are the way we communicate experiences, truth, and situations, who should know how to use them more creatively than people who are aware of their Creator? The world cries out for imaginative people who can spell out truth in words that communicate meaningfully to people in their human situation.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart

“Affirming, nurturing people influence others far beyond their intention simply because they provide rich soil in which individual personalities can grow.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart

“The surprise and beauty of words may break on a child like the dawning of a fresh world.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life

“Reading should offer the solace of hope and goodness, of another world where truth and right triumph.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life

“A good book is always an experience containing spiritual, emotional, and intellectual dimensions.”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life

“Truth”
― Gladys M. Hunt, Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life

“Good literature should always make life larger.”
― Gladys M. Hunt