fiction Quotes

“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outre results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.”

“Fiction here is likely to contain more truth than fact. Therefore I propose, making use of all the liberties and licenses of a novelist, to tell you the story of the two days that preceded my coming here.”

“But I opened my mind and came to appreciate that even in fiction there can be morsels of truth.”

“I thought of all those heroines of fiction who looked pretty when they cried, and what a contrast I must make with a blotched and swollen face, and red rims to my eyes.”

“In telling the story of my father’s life, it’s impossible to separate the fact from the fiction, the man from the myth. The best I can do is to tell it the way he told me. It doesn’t always make sense, and most of it never happened. But that’s what kind of story this is.”

“The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.”

“I became good at pretending. I became so good that after a while the lines blurred between my truth and fiction. And sometimes, when I did a really good job of pretending, I even fooled myself.”

″‘I wonder, now, what the Rules of Battle are,’ she said to herself, as she watched the fight, timidly peeping out from her hiding-place. ‘One Rule seems to be, that if one Knight hits the other, he knocks him off his horse; and, if he misses, he tumbles off himself – and another Rule seems to be that they hold their clubs with their arms, as if they were Punch and Judy – What a noise they make when they tumble! Just like a whole set of fire-irons falling into the fender! And how quiet the horses are! They let them get on and off them just as if they were tables!‘”

“‘The whole point of fanfiction,’ she said, ‘is that you get to play inside somebody else’s universe. Rewrite the rules. Or bend them.’”

“To really be a nerd, she’d decided, you had to prefer fictional worlds to the real one.”

“That’s what fiction is about, isn’t it, the selective transforming of reality? The twisting of it to bring out the essence?”

“Lies are never forgotten, they go on and they grow.”

“I’m a slow reader, but I usually get through seventy or eighty books a year, most fiction. I don’t read in order to study the craft; I read because I like to read”

“In order to sustain the theory of a mechanistic world, therefore, we always have to stipulate to what extent we are employing two fictions: the concept of motion (taken from our sense language) and the concept of the atom (=unity, deriving from our psychical “experience”): the mechanistic theory presupposes a sense prejudice and a psychological prejudice.”

“Such amusing fiction, these stories they tell. It always comes to this. If they really had a desire to live, they would’ve been more aware of how easy it is to die, would’ve chosen their actions more wisely. In these moments, you can tell they’re not regretting having hurt you, they regret doing it to your face.”

“Leonardo tried very hard to be scary.”

“He would fine the most scaredy-cat kid in the whole world...and scare the tuna salad out of him!”

“And he wasn’t just plain weird like Hector.”

“He wasn’t big like Eleanor.”

“He didn’t have 1,642 teeth, like Tony.”

“Leonardo researched until he found the perfect candidate...”

Persuaded, Monday agrees to relinquish control of the key, which is shaped like the minute hand of an old clock, although he quickly becomes suspicious of Sneezer, who apparently never showed much intelligence before. Sneezer and Mister Monday then fight and disappear in a flash of light.

“Young children will enjoy happy shivers of anticipation as this cumulative tale builds, and they’ll be delighted by the final surprise, when everyone sees that what Hattie has been saying is true!”

″‘But it was all lies,’ whispered Mrs. Povey, there being no polite way to put it. MCC Berkshire drew himself up to his full six foot and more. ‘Lies, madam?’ ‘Well, er... yes actually... lies.’ ‘Not lies, madam,’ he declared, magnificently unrepentant. ‘Fiction...‘”

“But that is not the only danger. Thowra needs all his speed and cunning to save his herd from capture by man. ”

“He grows from colt to a magnificent stallion, using the mountains to look after his herd and to escape from man.”

“And it was the same with his father. Paco worked more than anybody and earned quite a lot of money. The trouble was that for Doña Lola and the Leverets there were only two extremes in the village.”

‘Grrr!’ growl the cats. ‘Eeek!’ squeak the mice. So it goes in the battle between cat and mouse. But when feline crime hits Tokyo, an unlikely hero strikes back.”

“By plane they reach the headwaters, where they build the ‘Ark’ and set off downstream. Circumstances make it necessary for the father to fly home. ”

“In a time long past, in a land far away, a family has suffered an unspeakable loss.”

“A goblin who for many years has been hiding himself so that he does not frighten anyone finally finds a family.”

“It’s raining today. The sky is weeping for us. His lips are spelling secrets and my ears are spilling ink, staining my skin with his stories.”

“My sister looks like me- the same brown hair, eyes the same shade of gray... She is aways with the fairies, as my grandma used to say. She wasn’t always that way. Three years ago something happened that changed her. An accident. And just like that the sister I knew was gone. Now she doesn’t go out, doesn’t talk much, doesn’t think much as far as I can tell. She just is.”

“Callum was the one person in the world I could tell anything and everything to without having to think twice about it. So why did I now feel so...out of step? Like he was leaving me behind? He suddenly seemed so much older, not just in years but in the things he knew and had experienced. His eyes were a lot older than fifteen.”

“I sat down at my place around the table y looked away from Mum. Dad wasn’t bothered about me -or anything else, for that matter. He was totally focused on his food. Jude, my seventeen-year-old brother, grinned knowingly at me. He’s a really irritating toad. I looked away from him as well. ‘He was with his dagger friend’ Jude smirked. ”

“There was once, in the country of Alifbay, a sad city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten its name. It stood by a mournful sea full of glumfish, which were so miserable to eat that they made people belch with melancholy even though the skies were blue.”

″‘What’s that noise?’ said Mrs Hogger, sticking her comfortable round red face out of the kitchen window. ‘Listen, there ‘tis again, did you hear it, what a racket, what a row, anybody’d think someone was being murdered, oh dearie me, whatever is it, just listen to it, will?‘”

“As it turns out the ghetto is not entirely empty, and that is where he comes across various people, from neighbors to robbers, some of whom even try to help him. He finds himself in an abandoned, bombed out building on Bird Street (Ptasia street) where he seeks refuge. ”

“Every night, Felix has a visitor. It’s the Worrier, who comes to remind Felix about the little black spot on his tooth and other troublesome things.”

“Linus Baker walks through life like a wound-up clock ticking dutifully through the seconds: he has a routine, rules that he follows with a stony rigidity, and a comfort zone that he’s sealed himself inside off.”

“Felix’s mama buttoned Felix into his pajamas and told him his story. She gave Felix his Mitey-Vite and made sure all his animals were under the covers.”

“When everything was ready, people came from their crowded world. They came in one-way ships; fusion rockets and atmospheric gliders, packed to the brim with colonists, sleeping in dreams of a new beginning.”

“Brrrrring! Brrrrring! the phone was ringing. Happy rolled over. Brrrrring! Brrrrring! Happy jumped up. Brrrrring! Brrrrring! Brrrrring! The phone kept ringing. This time Happy picked it up. ‘Hello?’ he said. ‘Happy is here.”

“This book brings to life the day to day adventures of a young school boy - amusing, endearing and always in trouble.”

″ It’s about a young French boy, Nicholas, and his school friends. It’s written in first-person as Nicholas, and what I found particularly endearing was the way the sentences read as though they were really written by a seven year old.”

“Whether in the school room, at home, or in the playground, their exuberance often takes over and the results are calamitous - at least for their teachers and parents.”

“The Happy Return follows Captain Horatio Hornblower as he commands the thirty-six-gun frigate, HMS Lydia.”

“Sent out on a mission to weaken the colonial Spanish government, Horatio must form an alliance with a narcissistic revolutionary leader with delusions of grandeur, who goes by the name of ‘El Supremo’.”

″ Adding insult to injury, Horatio is furthermore challenged by the arrival of a singularly attractive passenger, the influential Lady Barbara Wellesley.”

“Unwilling to risk fighting the much more powerful ship in a sea battle, Hornblower hides nearby until it anchors and then captures it in a surprise nighttime boarding. El Supremo demands that it be turned over to him so that he may have a navy. ”

“How lucky they are! I wish I could see the things that they have seen, I wish I could go through a tunnel, I wish I could run on a bridge. I like my branch line very much, and I shouldn’t like to leave it.”

“In the life of Adrian Mole as he navigates his early teenage years and documents the journey in his diary. Who is it aimed at? The book is best suited at those aged around twelve or older.”

″ Grover’s own dark passage involves the brutal slaying of a cock turkey. . . but there are lighter moments (his father blindly calls him “impervious”) like his determination to teach the alphabet to unflappable housekeeper Rose.”

“She comes to the conclusion that starting a school would be a convenient way to generate some much-needed income, while also looking after her infirm younger sister Joey.”

“One night, it’s the story of a carousel so beloved by children that an old man finally sneaks on to understand why, and as he sails above the world, he does.”

“Ben’s grandfather had promised him a dog for his birthday, but the promise was kept in an unusual way.”

“Having now moved to the leafier Bronx, the family are just beginning to find their way around, and the girls set out at the beginning of the book, together with little Charlie, to visit their Aunt Lena in her apartment, a few blocks away.”

“The tortoise then went down to the pond where she found a small turtle shell. After cleaning it with sand and ash, the tortoise filled the shell with water and gave it to the man_who was lying on his blanket dying of thirst.”

“And because you have such good aim with a shotgun, you can hunt small animals and bring me their hides, and I will pay you in advance so that your little siblings can eat well.”

“As tenaciously as the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, the boys of the villages of Longevernes and Velrans perpetuate a vendetta of hundreds of years.”

“The plot takes place in Budapest, in the early 1900s; this setting already contains all the charm of an adventure, for a provincial boy: who knows where Budapest is ... ”

“A grand country house that lies under a curse, a prophecy, twin children who set out to find the lost horn and break the curse.”

“Tired from their search, the mallards land at the Public Garden Lagoon to spend the night. In the morning, a swan boat passes by the mallards.”

“The Mallards mistake the swan boat for a real bird and enjoy peanuts thrown by the people on the boat. Mrs. Mallard suggests that they build their nest in the Public Garden.”

“The seed a little boy plants grows into a tree with a house on top for him to live in.”

“Olle had just opened his mouth to ask, when Uncle Hoarfrost rushed toward the old woman and screamed: ‘Are you here again? Off with you at once, and don’t you dare stick your nose here again until Spring comes!”

“Thomas Hammond has always lived next to Leepike Ridge, but he never imagined he might end up lost beneath it! ”

“A snowman stood in a garden in front of a house. There was nothing special about him. He was just an ordinary snowman.”

But all Halinka has is herself, a blanket from her beloved Aunt Lou, and a secret notebook where she holds her sayings.

Halinka has been put in the home after being removed from her mother who was neglectful, Halinka also suffered physical abuse but it is not clear if this was from her mother or her mother’s boyfriends.

“it’s because of the tea Liza gave me.′ He chuckled. ‘Why, I am not just a snowman, I m a glowman!’ Then he thought, ‘A glowing nab us a going man, so I must go.”

“The fields and meadows were glittering white and deep in snow. ‘How pretty,’ said the snowman as he looked around him. Just then a crow flew over the snowman and perched on his old hat.”

“A young boy learns that it can be a harmful thing to care too much about the one plant in his bleak yard.”

“The Wonder Doctor’s quest, full of pitfalls, was perilous at best. Would he make it back to the castle, with the Golden Speedwell, in time to save King ...

“The search is on for a nightly story more wonderful than the last, and one by one the kingdom’s inhabitants arrive with theirs, the ferocious Wolf, the lovesick Donkey, the fire-breathing three-headed Dragon. ”

“For more than a thousand years already he had reigned over all the animals and dwarfs, and over the dragons too while they were still in existence. But as nowadays he never went out, there was scarcely anyone left who knew him.”

“For the past week his mother, Alison, and he had been hunting them in earnest, setting out the traps around the apartment at night, shaking out the catch come morning, like a pair of trappers tending their line.”

“Although Doraemon is a cat robot, he has a fear of mice because of an incident where robotic mice chewed off his ears. This is why Doraemon lost his original yellow color and turned blue, from sadness.”

“Dorami is Doraemon’s younger sister, and Dekisugi is a gifted student boy who as Shizuka’s close friend, frequently attracts the jealousy of Nobita.”

“His servants had died one after the other until only the hare remained. So these two lived quietly together in the copper castle until the king began to cough so badly that his beard shoos and the hare grew very anxious.”

“Once upon a time Puss and Pup kept house together. They had their own little cottage in the wood. Here they lived together and tried to do everything just like real grown-up people.”

“Goodness me!′ cried Puss. ‘Whatever’s happened to you, Pup? You must be il. There’s foam dripping from your mouth. Whatever is the matter?’ ‘Well,’ said Pup., ‘I found something lying on the table. I though it might be some cheese, or a piece of cake, so I ate it.”

“I’will tell you what,′ said Pup. ‘I’m sopping wet, but you’re dry, and your fur is nice and soft. It’ll make a lovely floor-cloth. I’ll dry the floor with you.’ So he took hold of Puss and dried the whole floor with her.”

“The next morning the king felt so much better he took a little stroll with the wolf in the crystal room of the castle. The san shone in and lighted up the pots of geraniums the hare thad arranged there.”

“Their home was not always as tidy as it might have been. Some things they did well, and others not so well. And sometimes there was rather a mess. One day they noticed that the cottage floor was very dirty.”

“Well, we do look a sight!′ they both said, looking at each other. ‘We’ve got the floor clean all right, but now look at us! We can’t possible say like this. Everybody will laugh. We’ll have to be sent to the wash.”

One morning, almost as if in a dream, Billy wakes up to find that he has turned into a girl!

The wolf’s uncle dies before teaching him how to hunt. Since Wolfy has never even seen a rabbit, he doesn’t realize that the two species are natural enemies.

“So they hung themselves on the line a second time. First Pup put Puss up, and as soon as she was hanging up she jumped down nd put up Pup. So they both hung on the line, just like washing, and were very please at the was the sun shone and made such a drying day.”

“Losing concentration, Yukin almost fell as the land dipped beneath the grasses of the plains. Somehow he kept his footing, aware that the hunter birds were cruising the air currents in search of him. He knew he had no choice other than to flee.”

“The horsemen swept across the corn-yellow grasses of the hinterland screaming and shouting to arouse fear. The clans people dispersed like scuttling roaches to be run down and either killed or captured.”

“The journey to those feared mountains, however, was not as tortuous as it might have been. Although now doubly shackled to prevent further escape, the prisoners were hauled upon three buffalo-driven wagons.”

“They hadn’t travelled far when someone squawked and cursed. This was followed by uneasy laughter. Something flew past Yukin, its wings pushing it through the air like a swift arrow.”

“At this moment Tip, who thought that he was being altogether forgotten, left his place behind the carriage and calmly went and lay down again on the hearthrug. However, he soon jumped up again, for Maurice pretended that the horses were running away.”

″... there was a little girl whose name was Nora. She lived with her father and mother in the country, and their house stood in a beautiful park.”

“The children of the forest live deep in the roots of an old pine tree. They collect wild mushrooms and blueberries and shelter under toadstools when it rains.”

“The men were in a dilemma, should they object strongly to the king’s officials, or try to persuade them that it would be better if the king hunted elsewhere.”

Steve remains after the show finishes to confront the vampire-- but his motives are surprising! In the shadows of a crumbling theater, a horrified Darren eavesdrops on his friend and the vampire, and is witness to a monstrous, disturbing plea.

She wants to return to her brother to bury him, is contaminated by radiation, and collapses. She wakes up in a provisional hospital in Herleshausen, where she witnesses the hardships of others. She learns of the extent of the disaster from television and a nurse.

“The children of the forest live deep in the roots of an old pine tree. They collect wild mushrooms and blueberries and shelter under toadstools when it rains.”

“They play with the squirrels and frogs, and when fall comes, they collect and prepare food to see them through the long winter, until the warm spring breeze starts to blow.”

“The jewels, hidden in d’Andrèzy’s camera, are knowingly dropped into the water by the now scornful yet still protective Miss Nelly to eliminate the evidence.”

On his ninth birthday, Gwyn is given a brooch and told to cast it into the wind. Later he discovers the wind has sent something back: the snow spider.

When Alexander becomes lost in the city, his stuffed dog Felix comes to rescue him, only to become lost himself.

So begins Gwyn’s journey as a magician. Against the shimmering backdrop of a magical domed city, Gwyn has to battle evil and heal a fractured family.

Two years after the Last Days, Australia has become a dangerous place, and a battle-ground for survival.

Ben, who has a telepathic ability to control animals, leads a hazardous existence in the bush west of the Blue Mountains.

Is it an island of safety in the midst of so much danger? Or is it really the most sinister place of all?

With Linnea’s first person narrative voice shining brightly and sweetly in the fiction sections of Linnea in Monet’s Garden, one can really emotionally feel and broadly smile at her effervescent joy of discovery and her constant delight as she and her elderly neighbour Mr. Bloom (who is a retired gardener) visit France to follow and explore both Claude Monet’s art and his life.

Denny, a teenager, is one of the unlucky ones, a survivor, one of those who have come through a nuclear war alive.

The wolf then tells his story to the boy, through images in his pupil, and their communication slowly melts Blue Wolf’s mistrust of humans.

“He’s starting to get on my nerves, the wolf thinks to himself. For the last two hours the boy has been standing. in front of the wire fencing, as still as a frozen tree, watching the wolf walking.”

The wolf has lost nearly everything on his journey to the zoo, including an eye and his beloved pack. The boy too has lost much and seen many terrible things.

“But there’s something bothering the wolf. A silly detail. He’s only got one eye and the boy’s got two. The wolf doesn’t know which of the boy’s eyes to stare into. He hesitates. His single eye jumps, right-left, left-right. The boy’s eyes don’t flinch.”

“For as long as she can remember, ten-year-old Jenny has lived in an orphanage. And for as long as she can remember, she wanted parents. But when the day comes and Jenny finally gets a Sunday foster mother, she is bitterly disappointed.”

A strander traveler in time, Rudolf has no choice but to join the immense children’s army -almost ten thousand strong.

Dolf helps the children defy the terrible mountains, conquer disease and fight evil knights. Slowly, Dolf begins to realize that the real danger does not lurk behind the next mountaintop, but rather within the crusade itself.

“She didn’t know exactly how it all started, but it began soon after they had moved into this old building last spring. She hardly gave the first few occurrences a thought. Because Anders had torn off wallpaper throughout the apartment, revealing closets that had been nailed shut, everything seemed unsettled.”

But when the Lama says they have been drawn to him by destiny, and insists that Theodore, Mrs Jones, and her young Chinese courier Lung hold the clue to the birth of the long-awaited Tulku, or reincarnated spiritual master, there seems to be no escape.

There are bandits that are attacking them when a Buddhist monk stops it. The monk has been looking for their spiritual master Tulku to lead them.

The dreadful conditions he encounters compel him to use his twentieth-century knowledge to try to create order out of chaos, and in spite of himself he becomes a leader and organizer.

But by a miscalculation of the computer, he arrives in the Rhineland as the exact time that the Children’s Crusade is passing through.

A time machine catapults a twentieth-century teenager -intelligent and headstrong - to the thirteenth century. Rudolf Hefting of Amsterdam thought the was engaged in an experiment that would take him back to the Middle Age to a tournament of knights.

“She heard the outer door of the house open, and slam shut. Raising her head, she looked down from the stove-top and saw the inner door fly open. In hurried a tall figure, hidden under a big fur hat and a long, quilted, padded, fantastically embroidered coat.”

“Can I be of help?′ Big Cat asked. ‘I want to see the world.’ Little Fish said. ‘The world is beautiful here, really beautiful,’ Big Cat said. ‘The flowers... the trees... the ocean just over the hill.”

“Big Cat ran over the hill, and into a shabby house. “is the ocean in here?′ Little Fish asked. ‘Your trip is over,’ Bid Cat said. Little Fish looked around at the pots and pans hanging on the walls.”

“He did not dare to search for the treasure. Yet he returned to the bridge every morning and wandered around it until dark.”

“Big Cat ran through the woods. ‘How beautiful... is that a flower?’ Little Fish asked. ‘Yeah, that’s a flower,’ Big Cat said. ‘Is that a bird?’ ‘Yeah,’ Big Cat snarled.”

I was really confused about how they were going to reveal the killer since the entire story was first person narrations from the suspects. A new shocking truth is revealed at the end of every chapter so you simply can not put the book down. ”

“Ocean! Old Fish told me about the ocean,′ Little Fish said. ‘Can you take me there?’ ‘Of course,’ said Big Cat. ‘But first, I’ll have to go home and get a bag carry you in.’ ‘Please hurry, back,’ Little Fish said.”

“But I’m all bones,′ Little Fish cried. ‘Quiet! I’m trying to read this cookbook,’ Bid Cat said. Big Cat said, ‘Hmm... boiled...baked.. creamed with almonds... Here it is! Fried fish with pickles, mayonnaise, banana tips, ketchup and mustard. I’m starved.”

“Grace gave me.... He is big and furry. I like cuddling him!”

“inside there was a great room where King Winter sat, tall and stern, in his ice throne, with a walrus on each side. For the first time Ollie felt cold, for he was almost a little afraid of King Winter. ”

“Kelly and Kai love to play on the gnarled old tree trunk outside their cottage in the woods: sometimes it becomes a horse, sometimes a crocodile and sometimes even a dragon.”

“The old sheep dog was very happy to get some help. He lay down and slept all day while Kai and Kelly looked after the sheep. They were careful not to lose a single sheep.”

“Who was it then? I looked under the table. I lay down flat on my stomach in order to check whether someone was hiding under the sofa saying ‘Omps.’ Of course, no one was there. Everyone knows that there’s never anyone under the sofa.”

“Mathilda’s world was small. Here’s is what was in it: Green grass. Green barn. Gray skies. Gray stones.”

“It caught Mathilda’s eye while she was grazing. Mathilda had never seen anything so magnificent. At once, something inside her woke up.”

“The Round Table has collapsed into warring factions. Arthur and Gawain are besieging the man who used to be their closest friend, Lancelot.”

“Orange balloon,′ said another, starting on a clump of clover. ‘Orange balloon. . .’ said Mathilda. ‘That’s me!’ ‘You?’ the sheep laughed. ‘You’re not orange. And you’re not a balloon.”

““Refusing to follow the boring herd mentality of her grazing companions, a visionary little sheep uses her imagination to achieve the impossible…The unflappable Mathilda will tickle and inspire.”

“He tells of Arthur’s boyhood, and what happened when the young king drew the magic sword from the stone and claimed his kingdom; of his own adventure with the supernatural Green Knight.”

“The Round Table has collapsed into warring factions. Arthur and Gawain are besieging the man who used to be their closest friend, Lancelot. ”

“As his anxious brain circles around this terrible truth, Sir Gawain tells his young squire the story of the rise and fall of the ‘fairest fellowship of noble knights that ever served a Christian king’, as seen through his own eyes. ”

“The search for the Holy Grail; and the rivalries and jealousies that splintered the fellowship and set friend against friend. ”

“In the churchyard there was seen a great stone wherein was an anvil. In the anvil was a sword and about it was written in letters of gold, ‘Whoso pulleth this sword from this stone and anvil is right wise king born of all England.“‎

“This involves scouting the area for clues, talking to the people at the college and following up leads. Mr Goon is there purely for comic relief and telling the kids where to go, but he is mildly amusing.”

“He names them Mr Proud, Mr Ponder and Mr Percival. After he releases them, his favorite, Mr Percival, returns. ”

“The girls know this term is going to be full of fun, but it’s also full of upset when Pat misses the first few weeks.”

“Sometimes I throw a stick. Then I go get it. It’s fun.”

“Oh, Papa. I couldn’t let that little chicken get all upset over an acorn! Please read one more story, and I promise I’ll fall asleep.′ ‘But Chicken,’ said Papa, ‘we are out of stories.”

“His brown ears and furry gray body have been replaced by a human-like form sporting a man’s hat and coat; only a long tail links him to his original incarnation.”

“The artist’s trademark cut paper collages colorfully and succinctly illustrate Timothy’s quest.”

“The book gives readers a comical peek into the life of man’s best friend. Our protagonist is a self-reliant canine...”

“A band of field mice, reassured by the hero’s tail, dub him Mr. McMouse and offer membership in their group--if he can pass a battery of tests and earn a field mouse license.”

“i’m my own dog. Nobody owns me. I own myself. I work like a dog all day.”

“This slight tale’s opening, in particular, may confuse little ones--why does Timothy change, and exactly who or what does he become?”

“Windy, Breeze, and Stormy heard this and their ears perked up. An adventure meant a car ride, and they did love car rides. So they thought, ‘why not? Let’s go!”

“Watch that bee!′ Stanley advised. ‘What bee?’ asked Rhoda. ‘Near your left foot,’ said Stanley. ‘Which is my left?’ asked Rhoda. ‘The one with the freckle,’ said Stanley.”

“During the trip, Windy, Breezy, and Stormy sometimes stuck their heads out the open windows of the car. They loved the way the wind caught their ears and caused them to flap and flutter.”

“Once upon a time there was a little girl named Pandora. Pandora’s mother had to go out to the store. ‘Pandora,’ she said, ‘you may have a nice piece of honey cake, and you may play in the sprinkler... ”

“Open the drawer for me please, Rhoda,′ said Stanley. ‘Are you ready, Rhoda?’ called their mother. ‘Yes,’ answered Rhoda. ‘Stanley helped.’ ‘It was nothing,’ said Stanley. It is beautiful!′ cried their mother. ‘Hugh and kiss please,’ said Rhoda.”

“Rhoda, please clean up your room now,′ said Rhoda’s mother. “Too tired,′ Rhoda answered. ‘Stanely!’ said their mother. ‘See that Rhoda cleans up her room.’ ‘Shake a leg, Rhoda,’ said Stanely.”

“When the sign on her door fails to keep him out, Ruby tells Max her own version of the Greek myth Pandora’s Box.”

“Well, there they go,′ said Stanley. ‘Hand me that pillow please, Rhoda.’ “I’ll pick up the berries first,′ said Rhoda. ‘Your modeling clay is stacked,’ said Stanley. ‘Your bed is made, your clothes are folded.’

“Clothes for every dinosaur. No matter shape or size. We have a wide selection. You won’t believe your eyes. Shirts with room for spikes. Pants with holes for tales. Brontosaurus turtlenecks. They’re all on sale!

“One day, the three dogs were snuggling on the couch, watching Gary on TV. After the weather forecast he began talking about a new puppy he was going to adopt.”

“But, Stanley,′ said Rhoda, ‘where should I begin.’ ‘Wy don’t you start by taking the beads out of your modeling clay?’ suggested Stanley. ‘They’re betties, not beads,’ said Rhoda.”

“But Max had no idea what the sign said. When Ruby wasn’t looking, he sneaked into her room to see what was in her jewelry box.”

“I am Saltopus. I am nasty and I’m mean. My teeth are sharp as daggers. My legs are strong and lean. I dine on luscious lizards, bugs are tasty snack. I am a mighty hunter_ and I’m ready to attack.”

“Gary could tell Windy, Breeze, and Stormy were a little uneasy about adding to their family. An idea came to him. ‘I know!’ he said. ‘We need to spend some time together and get to know each other... Let’s go on an adventure!”

“Ruby caught him. ‘Max’, said Ruby, ′ can’t you read what the sign says?′ ‘No’, said Max. Ruby read h im the sign out loud three times.”

‘Dirty!’ said Rhoda. ‘Just try it,’ said Stanley. ‘Don’t touch it, don’t look at it!’ said Rhoda. ‘When we get home,‘said Stanley, ‘Daddy will fix it.’ ‘What will Daddy do?’ asked Rhoda.‘Take the bee sting out of your foot.’ Stanley answered.”

“A new puppy?′ they thought. ‘Why didn’t we know about this?’ ‘What do you think he will name her?’ Windy asked her doggy sisters.”

“Ruby made Max sit in her chair. ‘Max, I’m going to ready you a story about sneaking and peeking. Are you read, Max?’ said Ruby. ‘Yes,’ said Max. ‘Then, listen up,’ said Ruby.”

″..but you must promise not to open my magic jewelry box.′ Pandora promised. Pandora ate a delicious piece of honey cake, but she couldn’t keep her mind off that box.”

“A horn’s a handy thing to have. And three is even better. I always have a place to hang. My muffler and my sweater.”

“Whatever they are,′ said Stanley. ‘Rhoda, all your clothes are on the bed again.’ ‘I’ll put my berries in my berry bottle,’ said Rhoda. ‘Help me make the bed, Rhoda,’ said Stanley.”

“The Duckbill dino’s pointy head was like a built-in flute. He did not talk. He did not growl. He just went: ‘TOOT!’ ‘TOOT!’ ‘TOOT!”

“I squirmed at the memory and hoped that Ann wouldn’t remember and laugh. Well, at least I could write. I knew I couldn’t expect letters from Ann. Letters rate to Earth were crippling _ so was the cost of everything that had to make the 240,000 mile haul.”

“In the car, McDuff knew immediately they were not heading for Lake Ocarina, or the Take-Out Steak-Out, or Dog Training School. ”

“The alligator’s eyes were flashing. The alligator’s teeth were gnashing, as tables and chairs and the piano went crashing. And after the sofa and curtains were ripped, the alligator licked its lips.”

“How peculiar,′ said Danina. ‘Here you merely rustle the trees and play with the leaves and calm the birds in their nests.’ ‘I am not always kind,’ said the wind again. ‘Everyone here is always kind. Everyone here is always happy.”

“And then what did the alligator do? Did it say to the children , ‘I’m going to eat you?’ Well, not exactly, but . . . it came closer . . . and closer . . . and closer until . . . ”

“His friends were already there. Emu was bossing and fussing as usual. ‘Now, let’s get started,’ she said. ‘Who’d like to be the Archangel Gabriel?”

“i knew it was you,′ said Danina.‘But not one believed me.’ And the wind danced around the garden and made the flowers bow. He caressed the birds in the trees, and played gently with the feathers on their wings.”

“It is very creative and the illustrations are made with cut paper. Life is tough for cookies at the bottom of the jar. When the cookie’s partner Chips is taken by fingers, the tough cookie decides he must do something to stop fingers with the help of pecan Sandy and all the crumbs.”

“One day she spots something suspicious in the bushes. She warns the other animals but they are apathetic. More and more of the thing reveals itself until Hattie realizes it’s a fox.”

“Now living as a private eye at the bottom of the cookie jar, he learns that Fingers has gotten his old partner, Chips.”

“It is about a boy, Wilfrid, who helps an elderly friend, Nancy, to regain some of her memory.”

“Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge is a small boy who has a big name - and that’s why he likes Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper because she has too.”

“And the sisters realize that perhaps the queen cast them from their homes not out of anger or spite- but because they were the only ones who could do what must be done.”

“Wombat loves Christmas. He loves the cards and the candles, the presents and the pudding and most of all he loves the Nativity play.”

“His house was next door to an old people’s home and he knew all the people who lived there.”