Some of The Best Opening Lines From Children’s Literature

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice “without pictures or conversation?”

 

Wardens of The Weir - Nicholas Stuart Gray
Wardens of The Weir by Nicholas Stuart Gray

My father came into the room briskly and asked if I had murdered the Tonkins children. I said no, but I’d often thought of it. The perfect chance had not yet presented itself.

 

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”

 

The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

There was a boy named Milo who didn’t know what to do with himself – not just sometimes, but always.

Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White

“Where’s Papa going with that axe?’ said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

 It was a dark and stormy night.

 

 

Steadman-animal-farm
Animal Farm by George Orwell

Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes.

 

The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett

 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 Dragon's Quest by Rosemary Manning
The Dragon’s Quest by Rosemary Manning

 This chapter is a very short one. It should really have been called ‘Preface’ or ‘Introduction’, but I knew that you would never read it if I called it by such a boring name, so I have called it Chapter One.

 

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.