juvenil fiction Quotes

“My village, or, to be more exact, the village where I was brought up, for I did not have a village of my own, no birthplace, any more than I had a father or mother _the village where I spent my childhood was called Chavanon: it is one of the poorest in France.”

“One day, the captain of the guards asked him, ‘Why are you here?’ Isaac told him the dream. The captain laughed.”

“He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.”

“Mam’zelle stared perplexedly at the girl before her. Why did she speak in this strange manner? And why did she keep calling her Mam? Just then Jennifer Mills, and her friend Barbara Thompson came over, along with Margaret Winters.”

“Lara found it difficult to know just what to say. Here they were in the hot sun on the verandah of the school principal’s house - her long-lost father, this tall angular man with his piercing blue eyes, and her beloved teacher. Both of them standing and looking at her and expecting a reply of some kind. But she could only stare dumbly at this total stranger, who was nevertheless her only family now. Her father.”

Master illustrator Quentin Blake has created an irrepressible character, and action-filled plot, and an eloquent story that can be read on several levels -- all without the use of a single word.

“Because freak shows were terrible,” he said. “They pretended to be like proper circuses but they were cesspits of evil. Anybody who went to one would be just as bad as the people running it.”

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.

“Here’s little Moomintroll, none other, harrying home with milk for mother. Quick, Moomintroll, it’s nearly night. Run home while there’s a bit of light. Don’t hang around in woods like these, strange creatures lurk between the trees.”

“His eyes are a midnight moment filled with memories, the only windows into my world.”

“I catch the rose petals as they fall from my cheeks, as they float around the frame of my body, as they cover me in something that feels like the absence of courage.”

“I’m suddenly desperate to drink in every drop of his being, desperate to savor every moment I’ve never known before. I suddenly worry that there’s an expiration date on this phenomenon.”

“The sun is revolving around the moon when he responds. I offer him a smile. Try to keep my organs from falling out. Hope the holes in my head aren’t showing.”

“Pat’s younger sister Rachel, aka Cuddles, demands that everyone call her Rae from now on, and leaves for college. Life at Silver Bush is no longer as pleasant as before, but Pat clings to her love of home desperately.”