Every Wednesday is List Day, or Quiz Day, or Tips Day.

This Wednesday: a list of memorable lines from classic children’s picture books.

Recently, I made a list of some of my favorite lines from classic children’s picture books. This is my favorite kind of thing to do. I love quotes, and I love picture books. In fact, my children’s literature reading groups once had a splinter-group meeting to discuss picture books, and I’m going to suggest that we do it again.

Truly great picture books are engaging at any age, beautiful and beautifully written, and yet we don’t think of them as something we would seek out as adults. And when we think of enjoying “art,” it’s easy to imagine going to a museum–but the pleasure of art comes in many forms, and the art of picture books is a delight. Also, at least for me, reading picture books brings back many happy memories, and that’s a happiness-booster, as well.

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“My mom says some days are like that. Even in Australia.” — Judith Viorst, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

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“The moon is high. The sea is deep. They rock and rock and rock to sleep.”  — Sandra Boynton, The Going To Bed Book

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“She thought to herself, ‘If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as dark as ebony.’” – Brothers Grimm, Snow White — two extraordinarily beautiful editions: one illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, the other by Nancy Ekholm Berkert

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And he smiled at her and he said, “You are not only wise, and kind, and swift, but you are also the bravest of all the bunnies. And I shall make you my very own Gold Shoe Easter Bunny.”  –DuBose Heyward, The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes

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“He remembered where his bedroom window was, when there was a moon. It was always right around the moon. And then Harold made his bed. He got in it and he drew up the covers. The purple crayon dropped on the floor. And Harold dropped off to sleep.” – Crockett Johnson, Harold and the Purple Crayon

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“Little Sal’s mother slowly backed away. (She was old enough to be shy of bears, even very small bears like Little Bear.) Then she turned and walked away quickly to look for Little Sal.” –Robert McCloskey, Blueberries for Sal

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“He told his mother all about his adventures while she took off his wet socks. And he thought and thought and thought about them.” –Ezra Jack Keats, The Snowy Day

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“Nothing to give your mother on her birthday?” said Mr. Rabbit. “Little girl, you really do want help.”

“I would like to give her something that she likes,” said the little girl.

“Something that she likes is a good present,” said Mr. Rabbit. –Charlotte Zolotow, Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present

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When they had eventually calmed down a bit, and had gotten home, Mr. Duncan put the magic pebble in an iron safe. Some day they might want to use it, but really, for now, what more could they wish for? They all had all that they wanted.  — William Steig, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

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The Little House was very happy as she sat on the hill and watched the countryside around her. She watched the sun rise in the morning and she watched the sun set in the evening. Day followed day, each one a little different from the one before…but the Little House stayed just the same. – Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House

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Then one morning Edith looked into the garden and there stood two bears!

The big bear bowed. “You must be Edith,” he said. “I am Mr. Bear and this is Little Bear.” – Dare Wright, The Lonely Doll (I went through an adult obsession with Dare Wright’s picture books; I have many of them.)

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One morning a mother saw a strange bundle under the blankets in her bed. “What is it?” she said to herself. “What can it be?” –Ruth Krauss, The Bundle Book (now it’s called You’re Just What I Need, but I prefer the original title; it was my sister’s favorite book as a child)

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“Momo is a big girl now, and this is a story she does not remember at all. Does she remember or not, it was not only the first day in her life that she used her umbrella, it was also the first day in her life that she walked alone, without holding either her mother’s or her father’s hand.”  — Umbrella, Taro Yashima (one of my very, very favorite picture books)

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“Oh no,” said the mermaid, “that was years before the bear came. We’ve had you always.” –Randall Jarrell, The Animal Family

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“What kind of story would you like to hear?” said Mother Bear.

“Tell me about me,” said Little Bear. “Tell me about the things I once did.” –Else Holmelund Minarik, Little Bear (this one brings tears to my eyes)

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How many of these did you recognize? And what are some of your favorite lines from children’s picture books? I could keep going for hours. I have to add just one more: one of my very favorite picture books doesn’t really have any good quotable lines, but the illustrations are mesmerizing: Peggy Rathman’s 10 Minutes Till Bedtime. And now I must stop myself! Oh, and Chris Van Allsburg. Stopping now…

How about you? What are some of your favorite picture books, and lines from picture books?

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Day 3 of the book give-away! Happier at Home hits the shelves in less than a month, and to celebrate, I’m giving away one book each day.

Enter your name and email on the sign-up form here, and every day, someone will be picked at random. U.S. and Canada only, alas.

If you’re wondering about the book, you can…

–learn more about it here

–read a sample chapter on the subject of “time” here

–email me for a one-page reading group guide here

–listen to a clip of the audiobook here.

 

Ancient philosophers and contemporary scientists agree: gratitude is a critical element to a happy life.

I’m filled with gratitude right now, for  the wonderful book party for Happier at Home thrown by some of my most fabulous blogger friends, the women of Go Mighty–Sarah Bryden-Brown, Maggie Mason, and Laura Mayes–and Isabel Kallman.

It was a perfect evening: the setting, the food, and most of all the people. There were all sorts of wonderful little details, such as the birdhouse (see the wonderful photo by Sheri Silver), the blackboard name-tags (people don’t like name-tags, but they also really love name-tags), the Polaroid photos (what’s more fun than instant photos?), gourmet popsicles, and so many terrific friends. Anthropologie and Bliss even provided some gifts for goody bags, and Imported Wines, some Diebolt-Vallois “Cuvee Prestige” NV Brut Blanc de Blancs. Laura even brought jars of homemade pickles! (I was flabbergasted that she could make homemade pickles. I can’t believe I know someone who can do such advanced cooking.)

If you’d like to see or read more about it, check out Laura Mayes’s Blog Con Queso, Sarah Bryden-Brown’s Blogstar, Amber Doty’s The Daily Doty, Jess Lahey’s Coming of Age in the Middle, or Maggie Mason’s Mighty Girl–Maggie is also doing a give-away.

A wonderful night.

Each week, I post a video about some Pigeon of Discontent raised by a reader. Because, as much as we try to find the Bluebird of Happiness, we’re also plagued by those small but pesky Pigeons of Discontent.

This week’s Pigeon of Discontent, suggested by a reader, is: “I can’t organize my mail.”

As you can tell, I’m extremely–possibly inordinately–proud of my mail center. But you don’t have to have a drawer-centered system! Follow whatever system works for you.

If you want to read more about this resolution, check out…

9 quick tips for keeping your home feeling serene and organized.

A surprising happiness booster? Cleaning my office.

7 tips for avoiding procrastination. Without delay is the easiest way.

What about you? What system do you use for staying on top of your mail? Sorting out the junk mail is one of my favorite household tasks. It’s so satisfying to get rid of that mail immediately. But then of course comes the bill-paying.

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The book give-away continues! Happier at Home hits the shelves in less than a month, and to celebrate, I’m giving away one book each day for the next few weeks–hot off the presses.

Enter your name and email on the sign-up form here, and every day, someone will be picked at random. U.S. and Canada only, alas.

If you’re wondering about the book, you can…

–learn more about it here

–read a sample chapter on the subject of “time” here

–email me for a one-page reading group guide here

–watch the Behind the Scenes video here (though you’d probably enjoy that more after you’ve read the book)

Happier at Home hits the shelves in less than a month! To celebrate, I’m giving away one book each day for the next few weeks–hot off the presses.

Enter your name and email here, and every day, someone will be picked at random. U.S. and Canada only, alas.

If you’re wondering about the book, you can…

–learn more about it here

–read a sample chapter on the subject of “time” here

–email me for a one-page reading group guide here

–watch the Behind the Scenes video here (though you’d probably enjoy that more after you’ve read the book)

What a joy it was to write this book! I hope you enjoy it.

People talk a lot about the happiness risks of the internet, such as how online shopping or celebrity news can suck away our time, or how Facebook can foster comparison with other people.

The internet amplifies aspects of human nature, so I try to watch out for its bad effects. But I also remind myself of how happy the internet makes me! I try never to take it for granted.

For instance, I’m often haunted by some quotation or anecdote I read somewhere, someplace, in the past. When I read it, it didn’t strike me as important, but now for some reason I desperately want to re-read it. So often, with just a few bits  of information, the internet locates what I’m looking for, to my immense relief.

For instance, when I was doing my research for Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill, I came across an anecdote in a diary related to World War II. I loved it — but I lost it.

I’d read so many wartime diaries — from where did this story come? I was sure that I’d copied the passage into my huge trove of notes and quotations, but somehow it had vanished. I thought it was in Jock Colville’s wonderful Fringes of Power, and I actually paged through the whole book, but couldn’t find it.

Finally, I turned to the internet. Now, I couldn’t remember the story exactly. I hadn’t read it in five or six years. And search, search, search…Eureka! I found the story that had eluded me for so long.

Here it is. It wasn’t Jock Colville, it was Harold Nicolson. In June 1941 he was working at the wartime Ministry of Information, and he wrote in his diary for June 10:

The Middle East have no sense of publicity. The Admiralty is even worse. We complain that there are no photographs of the sinking of the Bismarck. Tripp says that the official photographer was in the Suffolk and that the Suffolk was too far away.

We say, ‘But why didn’t one of our reconnaissance machines fly over the ship and take photographs?’

He replies, ‘Well you see, you must see, well upon my word, well after all, an Englishman would not like to take snapshots of a fine vessel sinking.’

Is he right? I felt abashed when he said it. I think he is right.

At the beginning of the summer, I had a similar experience. One of the pitifully few scraps of knowledge that I retained from college was a single line, which I remembered as something like, “Can one coin make a man rich? Pile up one coin and then another, and at a certain point, he becomes rich.” I was preoccupied with this idea and very much wanted to re-read this line.

Where did it come from? I pulled out a few college books and started leafing through them. Then I thought, “Hey, I could check online.” Bingo. Erasmus, The Praise of Folly. The funny thing is that I hadn’t even underlined this story in the book! And it wasn’t even in the actual text of the book, it was in the editor’s note in the footnote explaining the text’s reference to the “argument of the growing heap.”  And yet it was the only thing I remembered from that class, so many years ago — and I was able to find it again, in a flash.

If ten coins are not enough to make a man rich, what if you add one coin? What if you add another? Finally, you will have to say that no one can be rich unless one coin can make him so.

(I explain my preoccupation with the significance of the “argument of the growing heap” here.)

The internet is a good servant, and a bad master. But a good, good, good servant.

How about you? Does the internet add or subtract from your daily happiness?