Don't ever write just for a trend or fad, because it's a moving target, and by the time you get your work out there, the trend or fad is gone. Dig deep; don't be afraid to write fiercely. Expose your heart.
Jane YolenRead
A child who can love the oddities of a fantasy book cannot possibly be xenophobic as an adult. What is a different color, a different culture, a different tongue for a child who has already mastered Elvish, respected Puddleglums, or fallen under the spell of dark-skinned Ged?
Interpretation
What this quote means
Children's exposure to diverse stories fosters acceptance and reduces xenophobia.
The quote by Jane Yolen suggests that children who engage with fantasy literature, which often includes diverse characters and cultures, are likely to grow up open-minded and accepting. By immersing themselves in fantastical worlds and understanding various perspectives, they cultivate an appreciation for diversity that diminishes xenophobic tendencies in adulthood.
Themes
ChildrenDiversityFantasyAcceptanceLiterature
In practice
Example use cases
A teacher may use this quote to inspire her students to read more diverse literature.
More from Jane Yolen
All quotes →I don't care whether the story is real or fantastical. I tell the story that needs to be told.
Jane YolenRead
What makes a good book? Scholars and critics have been debating that question for decades. I like books that touch my head and my heart at the same time.
Jane YolenRead
Just write. If you have to make a choice, if you say, 'Oh well, I'm going to put the writing away until my children are grown,' then you don't really want to be a writer. If you want to be a writer, you do your writing... If you don't do it, you probably don't want to be a writer, you just want to have written and be famous—which is very different.
Jane YolenRead
I believe that culture begins in the cradle . . .To do without tales and stories and books is to lose humanity's past, is to have no star map for our future.
Jane YolenRead
Childrens books change lives. Stories pour into the hearts of children and help make them what they become.
Jane YolenRead
Similar quotes
Study history, study history. In history lie all the secrets of statecraft.
Winston ChurchillRead
Journalism still, in a democracy, is the essential force to get the public educated and mobilized to take action on behalf of our ancient ideals.
Doris Kearns GoodwinRead
The thought of these vast stacks of books would drive him mad: the more he read, the less he seemed to know — the greater the number of the books he read, the greater the immense uncountable number of those which he could never read would seem to be…. The thought that other books were waiting for him tore at his heart forever.
Thomas WolfeRead
Children have to have access to books, and a lot of children can't go to a store and buy a book. We need not only our public libraries to be funded properly and staffed properly, but our school libraries. Many children can't get to a public library, and the only library they have is a school library.
Katherine PatersonRead
The primary goal in the education of children is to teach, and to give the example of, a virtuous life.
Saint John ChrysostomRead
It may be said that an education which does not succeed in making poetry a resource in the business of life as well as in its leisure, has something the matter with it.
John DeweyRead