Quote of the Week--#004

" In recommending a book...the less said the better. the moment you praise a book too highly you awaken resistance in your listener."
Henry Miller
Quoted in Quotations in Education
compiled by Rosalie Maggio


From personal experience, I can tell you that there is much to that quote.

Much to the surprise of many people, I have never read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It was a favorite of my mother, a children's librarian. She praised it regularly and told me I just HAD to read it. Years later, one of my daughters read and loved it. People I know and admire often refer to this classic. Critics still rave about it. I probably will never will read it because someone told me I "had" to read it. Don't tell me how much I am missing. That will just make me dig my heels in deeper.

Parents, let this be a warning to you. You know your child best but you may find better results from just leaving a book around the house with no comment at all. Perhaps you could include sly references to the book in discussion of every day topics, but not make a big deal out of it. Better yet, let your child see you reading it and laughing or sighing. Be sure to let your child that no one should touch the book until you have finished it.

Don't ask your librarian or teacher to push a book on your child. Kids see through that and they take as much glee in rejecting an educator's ideas as they do in rejecting yours.

There are so many wonderful books in this world that missing a few--even if they are best books you have ever read--will not hurt anyone.