Quotes by Jon Scieszka

“Dont push reading as wonderful or magical. For a lot of boys, its not.”

“I hardly read any fiction.”

“Reading is so important. It teaches kids to be analytical thinkers. If we turn our kids off from the very beginning, were going to lose that.”

“Fiction is always pushed in schools as the holy grail of reading. Boys tend to like non-fiction more.”

“You need to be a reader to be a smart consumer and an intelligent citizen. To help boys, we need to realize they have a different take on reading.”

Your brain is doing some great work when its laughing.

And everyone lived happily, thought maybe not completely honestly, ever after. The End.

You know that you are a writer if you are imaginative. You know that you are a writer if you are curious. You know that you are a writer if you are interested in the things and people of the world. You know that you are a writer if you hold a minie ball in your hand and wonder about its story. You know that you are a writer if you like the sound of rain on the roof. And if you want to tell someone else about your heart and how waiting for the thunder sometimes makes you feel, if you work to find the words to do that, then you are a writer. --Maureen OToople in the short story Your Question for Author Here

The older you get, the more questions you get asked, and the more weary you become of answering the questions and the more elusive the answers--any answer, every answer--seem. --Maureen OToople in the short story Your Question for Author Here

Expand the definition of reading to include non-fiction, humor, graphic novels, magazines, action adventure, and, yes, even websites. Its the pleasure of reading that counts; the focus will naturally broaden. A boy wont read shark books forever.

My platform has been to reach reluctant readers. And one of the best ways I found to motivate them is to connect them with reading that interests them, to expand the definition of reading to include humor, science fiction/fantasy, nonfiction, graphic novels, wordless books, audio books and comic books.

I was born full grown in the middle of a hurricane and an earthquake on 10 September 1954, 12.52 P.M. When I found out that I had missed lunch, I gave such a shout that the Earth stopped and spun backwards two days. Thats why I celebrate my birthday on 8 September.

I like to tell kids that I started thinking about stories when I first started reading stuff like Dr. Seuss and Go, Dog. Go!, thinking, Oh yeah, thats funny. Id like to do that. And then writing throughout school, but at the same time I was studying pre-med stuff, because my mom told me I should be a doctor.