- "You don't think your dad's going to bury us in shallow graves, do you?"
"Nah," I said. "He's very thorough. I'm sure they'll be a proper six feet under."
From VILLAIN SCHOOL: HERO IN DISGUISE
by Stephanie S. Sanders
- I tried to look innocent. And even though I was innocent, I felt like I looked guilty. Then I realized trying to look too innocent might just make me look guiltier. I started to squirm and sweat a little.
"You look guilty," Ileana said.
Cat-a-bats!
From VILLAIN SCHOOL: HERO IN DISGUISE
by Stephanie S. Sanders
- "Time isn't precious. You are. As long as you remember that, you're sure to use it wisely."
~The Great Moodler
From THE LOST TRACK OF TIME
by Paige Britt
- The silent letters didn't want to suffer in silence any more. They wanted to speak up for themselves. But how? What could they do?
From SILENT LETTERS LOUD AND CLEAR
by Robin Pulver
- Nothing made sense without punctuation.
A couple days later, the school secretary delivered a bundle of postcards to
Mr. Wright's class. They were postmarked "Take-a-Break Lake."
From PUNCTUATION TAKES A VACATION
by Robin Pulver
- On a chilly night, in a barn far, far away from the North Pole, a kitten that had never heard of Christmas slept snug against his mother.
From CHRISTMAS FOR A KITTEN
by Robin Pulver
- Annie's answer was always the same: Do snowplows plow? Do tow trucks tow? Are school buses yellow? Of course I can make it up Tiger Hill!" And she always did, so there was never a snow day in Burskyville.
From AXLE ANNIE
by Robin Pulver
- The Christmas Billy Lee turned eight was the Christmas of Miracles.
From CHRISTMAS IN THE TIME OF BILLY LEE
by Jerdine Nolen
- Mr. and Mr. Anderson watched Hewitt,
in awe of his hidden talents. He was
even more amazing than they had
thought. Spontaneously their voices rose in a beautiful aria, and a feeling of overwhelming joy brimmed deep within their hears for Hewitt. In that moment, the world in the Anderson household changed.
From HEWITT ANDERSON'S GREAT BIG LIFE
by Jerdine Nolen
- When you give a living thing love, you never know where it will lead.
From PLANTZILLA
by Jerdine Nolen
- Rose was the first child born free and
easy to Jackson and Millicient MacGruder. I recall most vividly the night she came into the world. Hailing rain, flashing lightning, and booming thunder pounded the door, inviting themselves in for the blessed event.
From THUNDER ROSE
by Jerdine Nolen
- It seems like everything good that happens in my house happens in my momma's kitchen.
From IN MOMMA'S KITCHEN
by Jerdine Nolen
- "That tree has probably forgotten more
of the world that most folks remember," Momma Mary says. And on days when
the wind blows in whispers that only bees can hear, she tells me a "long, long time ago" story, like the one about how freedom came to the slaves on the
Plenty Plantation.
From BIG JABE
by Jerdine Nolen
- Pa didn't know a thing about raising dragons. He raised corn and peas and barley and wheat. He raised sheep and cows and pigs and chickens. He raised
just about everything we needed for life
on our farm, but he didn't know a thing about raising dragons.
From RAISING DRAGONS
by Jerdine Nolen
- Harvey Potter was a very strange fellow indeed. He was a farmer but he didn't
farm like my daddy did. He farmed a genuine U. S. government inspected balloon farm. Some folks say it wasn't real, it was magic. But I know what I saw and those were real actual balloons growing out of the plain old ground!
From HARVEY POTTER'S BALOON FARM
by Jerdine Nolen
- Izzy loves this changing time of year. Some days sunglasses, some days sweaters.
From NEW YEAR AT THE PIER
by April Halprin Wayland
- Period.
It sounds so final.
Like things stop.
When you get it.
I know that when I finally get mine,
I'm going to be so thrilled I'm going to call it my Exclamation Point.
From GIRL COMING IN FOR A LANDING
by April Halprin Wayland
- It seems like every chance they get, grown-ups are pounding you with that message. "Be true to yourself," they say. But here is something that grown-ups will never tell you. Being your own person doesn't always make you a hero. I know on account of what happened to me this year when I started middle school.
From RISSA BARTHOLOMEW'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
by Lynda Comerford
- Jeff said, "Rat, you can't just /shoot /someone. It's murder."
"Scientists kill rats," Rat signed. "Rat kills scientists. Fair."
From RAT TRAP
by Michael Daley
- And the blue-eyed scallop
and the sideways crab
sang with the tide.
"Sleep, Little Clam, sleep.
The waves roll high above you.
The sand is snug around you.
Deep under the sea, safe under the sand,
Dream, Little Clam, dream.
But the little clam was not listening.
He was already asleep.
From LITTLE CLAM
by Lynn Reiser
- Look, Margaret.
There is a little girl and her mother.
Hello.
Oh dear,
they do not speak English.
Mira, Margarita.
Alli esta una nina con su madre.
Hola.
Oh no,
No hablan espanol.
Hello.
Hola.
From MARGARET AND MARGARITA/MARGARITA Y MARGARET
by Lynn Reiser
- The baby chick looked up and saw--
a boy!
Her mother was a boy!
The boy was not the kind of mother
the chick had expected
But she loved him anyway.
From THE SURPRISE FAMILY
by Lynn Reiser
- Its you and me,
and me
and you,
just you and me,
baby!
From YOU AND ME BABY
by Lynn Reiser
- Romance goes like this:
Boy gets girl.
Boy loses girl.
Boy gets girl again.
The end.
It can't be any other way.
~ Jason
From ANYTHING BUT TYPICAL
by Nora Baskin
- All we are, all we can be, are the stories we tell," he says, and he is talking as if he is talking only to me. "Long after we are gone, our words will be all that is left, and who is to say what really happened or even what reality is? Our stories, our fiction, our words will be as close to truth as can be. And no one can take that away from you."
~ Jason
From ANYTHING BUT TYPICAL
by Nora Baskin
- "Sorry about this," Owen mouthed. He
put the snake on the floor and pushed it toward the door of the fort. The snake slithered forward and disappeared over
the edge.
From OWEN FOOTE
by Stephanie Greene
- All she could remember was the strange way the hairs on her arm had stood up when she felt his warm breath in her ear.
From THE LUCKY ONES
by Stephanie Greene
- "It's as if we've been shipwrecked, Margaret, and here we are, clinging to the wreckage, when all we have to do is stand up." Gran stood up quickly and held her arms out to the side. "The water's only up to our knees!"
From FALLING INTO PLACE
by Stephanie Greene
- "Today was the worst day of my life. Ms. Mac left Room 26 of Longfellow School.
For good. And that's bad."
~ Humphrey
From THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY
by Betty Birney
- "You can learn a lot about yourself by taking care of another species."
~ Ms. Mac, requoted later by Humphrey
From THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY
by Betty Birney
- "Sometimes extraordinary things begin
in ordinary places. A fancy-dancy butterfly starts out in an ugly little cocoon. A great big apple tree grows from a tiny brown speck of a seed. And the Wonders
started right on our own front porch on
a hot summer night. I would have forgotten on the spot if it hadn't been for what got started then and kept on going."
~ Eben McAllister
From THE SEVEN WONDERS OF SASSAFRAS SPRINGS
by Betty Birney
- "Father firmly believed in fate. He said Killdeer's sins would return to haunt him, whether in this world or the next. He told me the only way to change our fate is to change our lives. Only we can do that, Victor, no one else--then we'll find our
true fate--just like father said."
~ Vincent Nightshade
From NIGHTSHADE CITY
by Hilary Wagner
- Citizens claimed Billycan to be possessed, supernatural even. The old ones told how he once drove a rat to stab himself, mesmerizing him with his eyes. The rat lived through the ordeal, to this day claiming Billycan's eyes glowed like galvanized rubies, two glass bulbs filled with a red vapory substance, commanding him to take his useless life.
From NIGHTSHADE CITY
by Hilary Wagner
- I understand how he feels, Harry
thought, surprised. "I remember when
I was very young, I thought the world was a wonderful place," he said. "Then...
it changed."
From A TASTE FOR RABBIT
by Linda Zuckerman
- I took the porch steps two at a time, threw back the screen door. Mama was screaming. Like it was 1915 again and the water was rising. But it was me she wanted, who she yelled for. "Winnie!"
From WINNIE'S WAR
by Jenny Moss
- "You dislike the queen," he said.
Yet, in that moment, when he stated it, I didn't believe it was true. It should have been true, after all she had done.
He leaned forward, looking into my eyes. I could feel his warm breath on my cold face. I tried not to shiver. I wouldn't let him see how he affected me.
"I cannot figure you out, Shadow," he said. "Are you loyal?"
From SHADOW
by Jenny Moss
- ...surely even Tildy would agree there
are some situations where politeness
and decorum just aren't called for, enduring the taunts of a troll who has
just chased you deep into the belly of
a mountain and planned to eat you as
soon as he cut you out of a giant spiderweb being one of them...
From IVY'S EVER AFTER
by Dawn Lairamore
- Elridge seemed a curiously mild name
for a dragon. Ivy would have expected dragons to be called something like Bonebiter or Bloodfury, or one of those other intimidating names dragons always had in old stories. But after a moment's reflection, Ivy decided she liked the
name Elridge. It was a nice, trustworthy kind of name. Besides, it probably
wouldn't have been a good idea to fly
off into the Craggies with someone named Bloodfury anyway.
From IVY'S EVER AFTER
by Dawn Lairamore
- Erin and I ran to the dining room and got
to work on the posters. We wrote "LOST" across the top of each. Next we drew a picture of my tap shoe and made it ruby-red with a fancy bow like in real
life. We wrote my shoe size and then we put down my name and address. At the very bottom we wrote "REWARD" really
big to get people's attention, since it worked in class.
From CINDERELLA SMITH
by Stephanie Barden
- I stood up to make my announcement. "I have lost a very important tap shoe. It's shiny, ruby-red with a fancy bow and has my name on it. If anybody finds it I would be very, extremely grateful. Also, there will be a reward." I hadn't thought about the reward thing until that very minute, but I added it because the class was looking a little bored.
From CINDERELLA SMITH
by Stephanie Barden
- "These are all fine things to do. . ." said Papa, but with all of the hollering, whooping, and shouting, no one heard him except Baby Ellen, who woke right up, opened her mouth, and let out an earthshaking howl, a cloud-ruffling yowl, a listen-to-me-I'm-a-baby squall, and all the relatives fell silent.
From JUST LIKE A BABY
by Juanita Havill
- Me singing, singing
singing all day
with that happy,
warm-goodness
feeling spreading
over my body
like liquid sunshine,
like Christmas in July.
From "Me Singing" a poem from GROW, A NOVEL IN VERSE
by Juanita Havill
- "Must be that cannibal, Santa Claus," said Captain Cookie. "We've got to get out of here before he eats us."
From THE GINGERBREAD PIRATES
by Kristin Kladstrup
- Beware, you writers who write within;
Be mindful of stories that you begin;
For every story that has a beginning
May have a middle and an end.
From THE BOOK OF STORY BEGINNINGS
by Kristin Kladstrup
- When I heard that you hadn't said a word in years, I thought maybe we could be friends. If I love to talk and you can't, what could be more perfect than that?
From THE LAST CODFISH
by Jo McNeill
- Tut marveled at the power of the
word dead.
From THE LAST CODFISH
by Jo McNeill
- "Don't worry," said Maddy. "People didn't make life, so they can't destroy it. Even if we were to wipe out every bit of life in the world, we can't touch the place life comes from. Whatever made plants and animals and people spring up in the first place will always be there, and life will spring up again."
From THE PEOPLE OF SPARKS
by Jeanne DuPrau
- "I know now," said Doon. "This is the world we belong in."
From THE CITY OF EMBER
by Jeanne DuPrau
- In the city of Ember, the sky was
always dark.
From THE CITY OF EMBER
by Jeanne DuPrau
- You must never run from magic, least of all magic born of fire.
From THIEF EYES
by Janni Lee Simner
- "Magic was never meant for our world," Father said, and of course I'd agreed, though the War had ended and the faerie folk returned to their own places before I was born.
From BONES OF FAERIE
by Janni Lee Simner
- The angel is beside me. Like a great bird he rises, taking me with him.
From REINCARNATION
by Suzanne Weyn
- "No matter," Tesla said, continuing to gaze out the window. "The point is that science bears out a belief in what cannot be seen. In physics there are many things we cannot see directly: the underwater transmittal of sound; power surging along wires and through the ground in waves."
From DISTANT WAVES
by Suzanne Weyn
- "It's out there now," he said, putting his arm around my waist. "there's no taking
it back."
From DISTANT WAVES
by Suzanne Weyn
- Who were you? It's gone. You can't remember. The room you grew up in, the tree outside your window, the shadow of its branches waving on the wall. Gone.
~ Persephone
From RADIANT DARKNESS
by Emily Whitman
- The land of death, receiver of so many: I went there so I could live.
~ Persephone
From RADIANT DARKNESS
by Emily Whitman
- The soil is wet and black. A spade has turned it upside down, so the buried earth meets the sky and the sky brings its breath underground. It feels like I could fall right into that deep, rich place.
~ Persephone
From RADIANT DARKNESS
by Emily Whitman
- Bartleby chortled and hummed But he didn't say a word. Not baby. Not peekaboo. Not even ... MINE!
From BARTLEBY SPEAKS!
by Robin Cruise
- I love each hop, each spin, each shout. I love you from the inside out!
From ONLY YOU
by Robin Cruise
- Little Mamá's satin slippers are yellow now and so smooth. And sometimes when I wear them, we twir-r-r-rl together, my little mamå and me.
From LITTLE MAMÁ FORGETS
by Robin Cruise
- "I needed him to be there for every single victory. Every single prize whether they be Nobel, Pulitzer or Cracker Jack. I needed my dad back. The adventurer. The dreamer. The free spirit."
~Maggie
From THE MEANING OF MAGGIE
by Megan Jean Sovern
- "She stood beside the white cotton bag that held her basket. The pure whiteness of it shone like a beacon amidst the muted tones of old carts, hard-packed gray earth, the hazed sun that was sinking closer to the crest of the Kunlun.
All that was left out here in nowhere was a girl with a basket."
From THE VINE BASKET
by Josanne La Valley
- "I began in a bowl. I was not yet myself -
just a list of ingredients pulled from a shelf,
chosen by children who measured and mixed my smooth, spicy batter while sneaking quick licks…"
From THE GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE IN THE SCHOOL
by Laura Murray
- "L is for musk ox, because musk oxen like lollipops, but only if they're grass flavored"
"Are lollipops ever grass flavored?"
"No. What's your point?"
~ Musk Ox and Zebra
From A IS FOR MUSK OX
by Erin Cabatingan
- "Mo just got a mustache. A BIG, black, beautiful mustache."
From MO'S MUSTACHE by Ben Clanton
- "AND I wish I had a BIG bushy tail. Fangs too!"
From SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY
by Ben Clanton
- "Dish and Spoon came back to the table just in time for dinner. The macaroni and cheese was delicious, and everything was set right again."
From THE TABLE SETS ITSELF
by Ben Clanton
- "RAWR!"
~Rex
From REX WRECKS IT
by Ben Clanton
- "Nobody tells you what to do when you find out you ain't blood related to your own flesh and blood."
~Johnny
From THE TROUBLES OF JOHNNY CANNON
by Isaiah Campbell
- "She wasn't like one of them girls that puts on being nice or sweet to try to get her way. Her smiles was like a dog farts, they wasn't trying to hide nothing."
~Johnny
From THE TROUBLES OF JOHNNY CANNON
by Isaiah Campbell
- "There ain't much difference between a deer and a dog when you're shooting, but there's a world between them when one lands on your plate. If you're hungry enough, though, you won't pay no attention."
~Johnny
From THE TROUBLES OF JOHNNY CANNON
by Isaiah Campbell
- "Every boy wants a fish that can dance."
From MAX HAS A FISH
by Wiley Blevins, illustrated by Ben Clanton
- "Well, duck or cat, you're my friend now, which makes me want to shout… MEOW!"
~ Duck
From HEY, DUCK!
by Carin Bramsen
- According to my dad, free refills is one of the greatest advances in the history of civilization. "Max, my son," he said, "there was a time when people had to pay for a second cup of soda. Thank goodness you didn't have to live through that."
-Max
From ANYWAY*
by Arthur Salm
- "Yucky!"
From SQUARE CAT ABC
byElizabeth Schoonmaker
- "Red shoes made her look short."
From SQUARE CAT
by Elizabeth Schoonmaker
- "Seeds can take a long time. They don't grow faster if you yell at them. They don't grow faster if you jump up and down and stamp your feet. They won't grow at all if you dig them up to see what they are doing. I tried all these things."
~Hercules
From READY FOR PUMPKINS
by Kate Duke
- "My feet hit the ground. I took off for the station, but right on my heels was that hungry Dalmatian.
I'll run and I'll dodge as fast as I can.
I'm not a DOG BONE! I'm a GINGERBREAD MAN!"
From THE GINGERBREAD MAN LOOSE ON THE FIRE TRUCK
by Laura Murray
- "Everybody thinks you can't trust teenagers. Adults make mistakes, too. The only difference is that their mistakes are bigger."
~Minerva Watson
From GET HAPPY
by Mary Amato
- "I think every soul vibrates at a certain frequency. It's sort of like each soul has a sound that is its signature--and your soul just wants to feel the vibrations of this sound."
~Tripp Broody
From GUITAR NOTES
by Mary Amato
- "You know what they say: one man's earwax is another man's frosting."
~Billy Crook
From Good Crooks: The Missing Monkey
by Mary Amato
- Jax-
Please stop leaving the Havahart trap at the far edge of the yard. You have now caught Mr. Nelson's dog TWICE when the poor thing was having a pee in the edge of the bushes. Once was embarrassing. Twice is just ridiculous. The skunk will have to live without being relocated.
Love Papa"
From THE MISADVENTURES OF THE FAMILY FLETCHER
by Dana Alison Levy
|
