kids Quotes

the orphanage has a system that kids can only go out in pairs for a strictly set time.

“If anybody could survive on the loose, it would be this kid who showed up from Hollidaysburg. Who slept on floors. Who outran dogs.”

The illustrations are really wonderful - the kids spend a lot of time poring over the details - and the story is perfect for older siblings of any age. I really like the rhyming and cadence of the text - it is a fun story to read aloud!

A neat little book with poetry in it reminding us how much kids can hate school, somedays I can relate. The fun part is the rhyming and showing kids no matter what you are talking about, we can put in into a poem.

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’.

it brings to life summers when kids disappeared for days at a time, when there were no planned activities, and each day held its own possibilities.

“We pile onto the street and shoot out a riot of looks and hunches, we sniff about, hook up our notions, pace our minds up and down the street, and wait for something to happen- because something always will.”

The kids spend their nights at the Colonel’s pool, the neighbors disapprove of their family for this among other things, which doesn’t’ make a new family feel better at all. Their mother died and with her, the normalcy of their family died. Retta, the eldest, has tried her best to replace their mother, but Johnny, the middle child, is fed up with Retta.

“Do you know what everyone calls me now? Bed and Breakfast. That’s what all the kids yell after me in the playground. Even the teachers do it.

“The kids in Room 207 became very discouraged. It seemed that Miss Nelson was never coming back. And they would be stuck with Miss Viola Swamp forever. They heard footsteps in the hall. ‘Here comes the witch’, they whispered.”

“Finally, James broke the silence. ‘She probably figured she could be angry and mean to us and get away with it,’ he said. ‘Because we’re kids.‘”

“Maybe something terrible happened to Miss Nelson! ‘Maybe she was gobbled up by a shark!’ said one of the kids. But that didn’t seem likely.”

“She said you can’t protect your kids from life, because life gets us all in the end.”

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

“Those who are alive, especially kids and baby animals, play and run and laugh and think that it is fun to discover everything. It’s not very common for people to die when they are young. But sometimes it does happen.”

Prietita, a brave young Mexican American girl, defends Joaquín from the neighborhood kids who taunt him with shouts of mojado or wetback.

“Kids love 47 Stella Street. It is like dreams come true. Frank lives at 47. He’s six. His Dad, Rob, is a junk dealer. Their house is a big old rambling, tumbled-down, fixed-up, crazy place.”

The parents are always fighting with each other and verbally bashing each other (separately) in front of the kids.

It introduces kids to the world of painting and especially to Claude Monet. Everything is explained in a simple way and the pictures are lovely.

“Feel,” said Driscoll, his hands and arms out loosely. “Remember how you used to run when you were a kid, and how the wind felt. Like feathers on your arms. You ran and thought any minute you’d fly, but you never quite did.”