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"All children, except one, grow up"
Peter Pan
"Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's wife"
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
"Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs.”
Little House in the Big Woods (Little House on the Prairie)
"The Mole had been working very hard all morning, spring-cleaning his little home."
The Wind in the Willows
"Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter."
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
"Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy."
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
"Until he was four years old, James Henry Trotter had a happy life."
James and the Giant Peach
"When Mrs. Frederick C. Little's second son arrived, everyone noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse."
Stuart Little
"This story begins within the walls of a castle, with the birth of a mouse."
The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo
"One warm night four children stood in front of a bakery."
The Boxcar Children Number 1
"It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful."
Matilda
"Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her back."
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
"It was a dark and stormy night."
A Wrinkle in Time
“Keith, the boy in the rumpled shorts and shirt, did not know he was being watched as he entered Room 215 of the Mountain View Inn.”
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
“There once was a boy named Milo who didn’t know what to do with himself–not just sometimes, but always.”
The Phantom Tollbooth
"This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it."
The Princess Bride
"The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot."
Tuck Everlasting
"One cold rainy day when my father was a little boy, he met an old alley cat on his street."
My Father's Dragon
“When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen.”
The Secret Garden
"If you want to find Cherry Tree Lane all you have to do is ask the Policeman at the crossroads."
Mary Poppins
"I know I’m not an ordinary ten-year-old kid."
Wonder
“It was an afternoon in late September.”
Mr. Popper's Pengins
"Our story begins on the ocean, with wind and rain and thunder and lightning and waves."
The Wild Robot
"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
"Walking back to camp through the swamp, Sam wondered whether to tell his father what he had seen."
The Trumpet of the Swan