“If reading becomes a bore, mental death is on the way. Children taught to read by tedious mechanical means rapidly learn to skim over the dull text without bothering to delve into its implications – which in time will make them prey to propaganda and to assertions based on scanty evidence, or none.”
~Joan Aiken, american author
“On Imagination,” Lecture delivered at Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's literature (No date provided, c.1975-1986) in Innocence & experience: Essays & Conversations on Children's Literature, eds. Barbara Harrison & Gregory Maguire, New York, NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1987, p. 57