“When you get up every day, put on your protective armor. Don’t leave your day to chance. Take possession of it and surrender it to the Lord. Don’t let it get out of control and give the enemy an invitation to have input.”
J.J. Liddy, the main character of Kate Thompson’s novel The New Policeman, has a problem: there never seems to be enough time in the day. In fact, there seems to be decidedly less time.
“One day they swam over to the park on the river bank, and there they met a policeman called Michael. Michael fed them peanuts, and after that the Mallards called on Michael every day. ”
The girls, who often experience related feelings of isolation and misunderstanding, live in a rundown home on the far-rural edges of Sydney, Australia with their uncle, a piano player at a dilapidated hotel in the city, and mother who may be carrying on a secret affair.
Every day, eight-year-old Christine’s walk to school takes her past a talking alley cat. Christine stops and feels its warm head beneath her hand, and the cat’s insights invariably give her something to ponder.
“Eternity felt very big and very slow, especially when I couldn’t share it with the cat. The only thing that helped was the chain saw that Waldemar Buck used to carve up the afternoon. It wailed over the rooftops, and I imagined that with each wail a little piece of eternity fell from heaven.”
What a lovely day at the fair. Children lining up for pony rides . . . moms and dads in a pie-eating contest . . . babies chasing butterflies . . . babies heading for the trees . . . I SAY! Where are those babies GOING?
Griffin, the main character, comes from a magical family. He was named after a mythical beast, afterall. The story opens with him going to school for the first time ever. He’s not fitting in so well and it’s really hard because all of his other siblings are attending upper school. He’s alone and way misunderstood.
“She went every day to her ballet lessons and worked very hard for many years...until at last she became the famous ballerina Mademoiselle Angelina, and people came from far and wide to enjoy her lovely dancing.”
Just your typical ‘move into an old creepy house, weird stuff starts happening, one of the kids gets blamed, and then they find a book that explains the existence of fairies/faeries/fey which solves their problems... while at the same time causing many more problems’. Happens every day.
Deep in the woods in an old white cabin, three friends make their pumpkin soup the same way every day. The Cat slices up the pumpkin, the Squirrel stirs in the water, and the Duck tips in just enough salt.
They slurp their soup, and play their song, then pop off to bed, in a quilt stitched together by the Cat, embroidered by the Squirrel, and filled with fine feathers from the Duck. And it’s peaceful in the olde white cabin. Everyone has his own job to do. Everyone is happy. Or so it seems...
“Pat is the Greensdale postman. Every day he drives his red van up the valley. Twisting along the twining roads, up and over the hills, far away; down narrow lanes and tracks to farms and cottages. He brings letters and cards; newspapers and magazines; football-pools and catalogs and bills and birthday-cards and parcels full of who-knows-what? He also brings a smile, a joke, a chat; news of the valley and who’s-doing what. He has a little black cat, called Jess.”
“Was she afraid of? Meggie sighed. No matter how hard she tried. Sarah insisted on keeping her distance. Meggie turned back to watch the children. Life was so simple for them. Their biggest worry was what they’d get for their birthdays. Their biggest grumble was the time they had to go to be. Maybe things would be different for them...”
“In the bookcases of their apartment were four volumes of poetry which had written by Myron Krupnik. But the fourth book was her favorite. Her father’s photograph showed him bald and bearded, the way she had always know him. The poems were soft sounding and quiet, when he read them to her. The book was called Bittersweet; and it said, inside, ‘To someone special: Anastasia’.”
“Every day at twelve o’clock, Mr. Parker came to the church. Mr. Parker came to pull a rope. The rope went up to the Birds’ new nest. The rope rang the big bell right under Mrs. Bird’s nest.”
“My street is pretty good. I know all the kids. Further on, I still know all the kids, but sometimes they don’t want to know me. Eh, look out! She is here again. That migaloo jaibu, Sharyn. Hanging off her front fence. She’s watching me go past. She’s giving me that smile, that mango-mouth one.”
“Johnny dragged on for a few more day, but every day seemed emptier, more pointless. He could see no end to it; no reward at the end of the long and tiring time. His mind was strolling already.”
His friend had lived upstairs, where Claudio had visited him almost every day; this man had encouraged Claudio’s artistic bent, and talked with him about about life, art, and politics. A
“He won’t say where he lives or tell his surname or talk about his family or explain where he goes when he disappears for weeks on end. Still, Johnny is the most fascinating, daring person Chris has ever met.”
“And that is how it came to pass that Nicholas and Tina, for the first time in their lives, did not see each other for the whole day. Only at night, in the dark closet, did they meet again.”