Believe In the World: Wisdom for Grown-Ups from Children's Books - Amy Gash & Elise Howard - ★★★.½

AUTHORS: Amy Gash & Elise Howard

GENRE: Inspirational Quotes.

PUBLICATION DATE: August 20, 2024

RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A compilation of quotes from various books. Neat sections, relevant themes, but not exactly as the title promises. Still, a good option for those who find joy and inspiration in book quotes.

Children’s fiction (in which I include beginner reader books, middle-grade fiction, and some teen fiction) contains a lot of wisdom. It is not surprising then that the authors decided to compile quotes from children’s books. I love this intent, and to some extent, I like the implementation as well.

I was thrilled to see that the foreword is written by RJ Palacio. Her ‘Wonder’ is one of my all-time favourite books, and I have gifted it to all of my children’s friends. Not surprised to see how her write-up offers a beautiful ode to children’s fiction, highlighting how much wisdom they contain. I love how she says that children’s fiction has to be truthful, even when the truth is doled out with a spoonful of sugar.

Next comes an introduction by the two authors detailing how this book came into being. It seems that Algonquin Books had published a similar compilation of quotes in 1999, titled “What the Dormouse Said.” The authors decided that it was time to update and expand the collection and include some stand-out quotes from newer releases. Hence this new collection. I haven’t read the 1999 book, so I cannot comment on the exact changes made.

On the pro side, this new book is wonderfully and neatly structured. The content is divided into five meaningful sections with a heading that makes flipping to a particular section easy: ‘How to be Good in the World’, ‘How to be Joyful in the World’, and so on. Each section then has further subsections. For instance, the first one has five: Kindness, Acceptance, Courage, Confidence and Forgiveness. Each subsection contains at least ten quotes. Topic-wise browsing is thus a breeze.

The quotes come from a range of books. Classics and new titles written by authors from varied ethnic backgrounds ensure that this collection is diverse and inclusive. If you are an adult looking for middle-grade or YA titles to check out, this book has them in abundance.

There are some B&W illustrations scattered throughout the book, but not so many as to take away focus from the quotes. Some of the illustrations were great, others just okay.

The cover promises that the “wisdom” is only from children’s books, but I found many quotes taken from Young Adult books as well. A surprising entry was a quote from “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue”, which is an adult novel through and through. There are also quotes from adult classics such as “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the King.” So the tagline is a bit misleading.

All this would have been fine by me if the quotes were impressive. And many of them truly are. But the word “wisdom” in the tagline misled me into believing that every quote would actually have a wise message. But some of the quotes are funny, some are banal, and some are just absurd. Thus, the tagline is again misleading.

Moreover, a few quotes are repeated in multiple sections. Of course, you will notice this only if you read the book in a go, as I did. This is not the kind of book to read pagewise from start to end. It will work better when you flip to a random page and check out what special message awaits you there, or if you browse through the topics and go to the one that fits your emotional requirement.

I do believe with all my heart that there is tremendous wisdom in children’s fiction. While adult novels also contain deep thoughts, books meant for younger readers often write the truth in a simple and straightforward manner, which is very helpful when we want advice that gets straight to the point. This book compiles some of those brilliant quotes, but the heavy reliance on young adult books, the bland/hackneyed sound of some of the quotes, and the strange inclusion of some absurd quotes in a book supposed to have “wisdom’ made this a mixed bag for me.

Nevertheless, it is a beautiful collection as long as you disregard the tagline. So it will make a good gift option or a coffee table book to browse through at leisure.

My thanks to Algonquin Books for providing the DRC of “Believe In the World” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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Here are some of MY all-time favourite quotes from children’s fiction. A couple of these appear in this collection as well:

“Being brave doesn’t mean you aren’t scared. Being brave means you are scared, really scared, badly scared, and you do the right thing anyway.” ― Neil Gaiman, Coraline.

“It’s not enough to be friendly. You have to be a friend.” ― R.J. Palacio, Wonder.

“When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind. - Dr Wayne W. Dyer” ― via R.J. Palacio, Wonder.

“I like people who make me like them. Saves me so much trouble forcing myself to like them.” — Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables.

“‘It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.’” ― JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” ― JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” ― JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.