“When I was seven years old, I fell in love with a series published by Bobbs-Merrill called 'The Childhood of Famous Americans.' In it, historical figures like Clara Barton, Nancy Hanks, Elias Howe, Patrick Henry, and dozens more came to life for me as children.” YearsChildrenChildhoodFiguresHistoricalSeriesSevenDozenSeven YearsNancyClaraHistorical Figure Author:Ann Hood
“I was born and raised in the University of Chicago area and had an uneventful middle-class Catholic childhood. I had a heavy Catholic upbringing and Catholicism is terrible - it's the reason there were slaves. Mass every morning at seven o'clock during Lent. It's a totally negative, man-made religion.” MenMadeReasonBornClassMorningChildhoodMiddleTerribleMassAreasNegativeCatholicSlaveRaisedSevenUniversityHeavyClockMiddle ClassCatholicismChicagoEvery MorningUpbringingBorn And Raised Author:Chaka Khan
“Quintilian [educational writer in Rome around A.D. 100] thought that the earliest years of the child's life were crucial. Education should start earlier than age seven, within the family. It should not be so hard as to give the child an aversion to learning. Rather, these early lessons would take the form of play--that embryonic notion of kindergarten.” GivingShouldYearsChildrenHardPlayAgeFormChildhoodLessonsSevenNotionEducationalCrucialRomeAversionKindergartenEarly ChildhoodEarly Childhood Education Author:C. Sommerville
“I had a happy childhood in a nice suburban area, pretty idyllic, upper middle class and very, very white. My dad is an attorney. My mother is a housewife. They had five kids in seven years: me, my brother, and three sisters. I'm the oldest. We were all very active. My mother was exhausted.” YearsKidsMotherThreeWhiteClassFiveNiceChildhoodMiddleBrotherDadAreasSevenMy DadActiveMy BrotherMiddle ClassExhaustedSeven YearsAttorneyHousewifeHappy ChildhoodIdyllicUpper Middle ClassThree Sisters Author:Anthony Jeselnik
“I have seven step-siblings from my mother's second and third marriages. My degree of closeness to my step-siblings varies among the seven but I have a great sense of loyalty to all of them, especially the four from my childhood. If those people needed my help I would be there for them.” PeopleIfsHelpingWould BeMotherStepsFourChildhoodNeededDegreesThirdsSevenLoyaltySiblingVaryCloseness Author:Ann Patchett
“I was first sexually exploited when I was seven, by a distant cousin at a family wedding. Even after that I was routinely molested by older cousins and their friends. See, my innocence was taken away and I became mature at one bloody incident. I believe I never had a childhood. I grew up as an elderly person. And that's what my femininity brought upon me. Of course, in a patriarchal society, hijras' bodies are thought of as toys.” BelieveI BelieveTakenChildhoodSevenInnocenceMatureBloodyFemininityCousinSexually Author:Laxmi Narayan Tripathi
“My daughter is seven, and some of the other second-grade parents complain that their children don't read for pleasure. When I visit their homes, the children's rooms are crammed with expensive books, but the parent's rooms are empty. Those children do not see their parents reading, as I did every day of my childhood. By contrast, when I walk into an apartment with books on the shelves, books on the bedside tables, books on the floor, and books on the toilet tank, then I know what I would see if I opened the door that says 'PRIVATE--GROWNUPS KEEP OUT': a child sprawled on the bed, reading.” IfsKnowsChildrenBookHomeReadingParentWalksPleasureRoomsDoorsChildhoodBedDaughterEmptyTablesSevenComplainingExpensiveGradesMy DaughterContrastApartmentShelvesToiletsTanksGrownups Author:Anne Fadiman
“I breathe deeply, taking in the fresh spring air. Though Beaufort has changed and I have changed, the air itself has not. It’s still the air of my childhood, the air of my seventeenth year, and when I finally exhale, I’m fifty-seven once more. But this is okay. I smile slightly, looking towards the sky, knowing there’s one thing I haven’t told you: I now believe, by the way, that miracles can happen.” WayYearsBelieveStillsHappensKnowingOne ThingAirSkyChildhoodHavensChangedSpringOkayMiracleSevenBreatheFiftyI SmileI Have ChangedMiracles Can Happen Author:Nicholas Sparks
“After a while, footsteps sounded on the flagstones outside and there was a gentle tap at the door. Of course, one of them would come. So close were we, the seven of us, that no childhood injury went unnoticed, no slight, real or imagined, went unaddressed, no hurt was endured without comfort.” RealCoursesHurtDoorsChildhoodComfortSevenGentleInjuryFootstepsUnnoticed Book:Daughter of the Forest: Book One of the Sevenwaters Trilogy Source: Daughter of the Forest: Book One of the Sevenwaters Trilogy
“Ultima came to stay with us the summer I was almost seven. When she came the beauty of the llano unfolded before my eyes, and the gurgling waters of the river sang to the hum of the turning earth. The magical time of childhood stood still, and the pulse of the living earth pressed its mystery into my living blood.” StillsEyeEarthWaterMysteryBloodChildhoodSummerRiversSevenBlessPulseUltima Author:Rudolfo Anaya
“I do tend to divide my childhood into darkness and light, and the first seven years were certainly the darkness.” YearsFirstsLightDarknessChildhoodSevenDividesSeven YearsLight And Darkness Author:Robert Carlyle
“Seven to eleven is a huge chunk of life, full of dulling and forgetting. It is fabled that we slowly lose the gift of speech with animals, that birds no longer visit our windowsills to converse. As our eyes grow accustomed to sight they armor themselves against wonder.” EyeTimeGrowsLosesForgetAnimalWonderChildhoodHugeSpeechBirdSightSevenAccustomedElevenArmorConversesChunks Book:The Favorite Game: A Novel Source: The Favorite Game: A Novel
“As soon as one knows one is going to die, childhood is over.... So one can be grown up at seven. Then, I believe most human beings forget what they have understood, recover another sort of childhood that can last all their lives. It is not a true childhood but a kind of forgetting. Desires and anxieties are there, preventing you from having access to the essential truth.” KnowsBelieveHumansKindLastsDesireDiesI BelieveHuman BeingsForgetChildhoodEssentialsAnxietyUnderstoodPhilosophicalSevenAccessPreventing Author:Eugene Ionesco