WIST

1. Children read books, not reviews. They don’t give a hoot about the critics.
2. Children don’t read to find their identity.
3. They don’t read to free themselves from guilt, to quench their thirst for rebellion, or to get rid of alienation.
4. They have no use for psychology.
5. They detest sociology.
6. They don’t try to understand Kafka or Finnegan’s Wake.
7. They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other obsolete stuff.
8. They love interesting stories, not commentary, guides, or footnotes.
9. When a book’s boring, they yawn openly, without any shame or fear of authority.
10. They don’t expect their beloved writer to redeem humanity. Young as they are, they know that it is not in his power. Only the adults have such childish illusions.

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) Polish-American writer, Nobel laureate (b. Icek-Hersz Zynger)
A Day of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw, “Why I Write for Children” (1970)

Often misattributed to Singer's Nobel lecture; the work was included in a book edition of his speech (1978).