The shapes arranged themselves into words, and the words spelled out a delicious and wonderful phrase: Once upon a time.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the enchanting power of storytelling and imagination.
In the quote from Kate DiCamillo, the arrangement of shapes into words symbolizes how stories take form and transport us into different worlds. The phrase 'Once upon a time' evokes a sense of nostalgia and magic, signifying the beginning of countless tales that inspire wonder and creativity in both writers and readers alike.
In practice
This quote can be used to open a storytelling session at a library.
If you sit down and read with your kid, either having your child read to you or you reading to your child at a regular time each day, it deepens the relationship. You don't have to talk about stuff; the story will do that work for you.
I want to remind people of the great and profound joy that can be found in stories, and that stories can connect us to each other, and that reading together changes everybody involved.
If you want to be a writer, write a little bit every day. Pay attention to the world around you. Stories are hiding, waiting everywhere. You just have to open your eyes and your heart.
I was lucky enough to have a mother who took me to the library - the public library - twice a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays. And also bought me books. And also read aloud to me.
There is no right or wrong way to tell a story. You have to find your own way. You can get your idea from listening, looking, or imagining. Stories are everywhere. All you have to do is pay attention.
Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.
The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.
That's why we read fiction, isn't it? To remind us that whatever we suffer, we're not the only ones?
Every great literature has always been allegorical - allegorical of some view of the whole universe. The 'Iliad' is only great because all life is a battle, the 'Odyssey' because all life is a journey, the Book of Job because all life is a riddle.
Certainly 'The Judgment of Paris' was the novel in which I found my own voice.
My last vivid boyhood fright from books came when I was 15; I was visiting my uncle and aunt in Greenwich, and, emboldened by my success with 'The Waste Land,' I opened their copy of 'Ulysses.' The whiff of death off those remorseless, closely written pages overpowered me. So: back to soluble mysteries, and jokes that were not cosmic.
Great, big, serious novels always get awards. If it's a battle between a great, big, serious novel and a funny novel, the funny novel is doomed.
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