Quotes from Chris Grabenstein

man in a purple tailcoat. He looked around suspiciously. "Don't tell anybody, but I did it with the candlestick in the library." "That's Professor Plum!

Ah," said Jake. "Very tricky, Jenna. The answer, of course, is 'diner.' 'Fiend' is the word you would get if you took away one letter—'r' in this instance—but didn't rearrange the letters. 'Diner' fulfills both criteria specified in the question.

Walter the Farting Dog." The six geese spun around and farted, their tail feathers flipping up in sync with the noisy blasts. "Excellent. End story time." The geese slumped

Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a booger in my eye.

Will you stand up for us? Will you be our best man? I smile back. Sure. Absolutely. I say it with great gusto even though I know it will be an extremely tough act to pull off. Practically impossible. It's hard for anybody to be the so-called best man when John Ceepak is already standing there. But I'll give it a shot.

His favorite chicken dish is Artemis Fowl.

Do not use the elevators or your craft will stall.

including a bag of Pirate's Booty cheese puffs, which made the three friends laugh.

She won the four-horse chariot race in 396 BC and again in 392

P.S. 10, a school in Brooklyn, New York

You do? When I was your age, all I had was a girl problem.

You remind me of a young me, Jake!

Being a math nerd led to those girl problems I told you about.

No, I suppose not. Tell me, Jake, have the authorities apprehended this Monsieur Eriq LeVisqueux fellow?" "Not yet." "Good, good," Mrs. Malvolio muttered to herself. "Excuse me?" said Grace. "I was just remarking that it's good that you three look so good.

Holes by Louis Sachar

No," said Grace. "It's just right, right, left, left." "Correct," said Jake before Mr. Lyons could say "right" again.

glowing slices of pie.

Two shovels and a pickax.

Maybe some Spam or SpaghettiOs?

It's your story," Kyle whispered back. "Take it where you want to go.

A stalactite holds tight to the ceiling," said Jake proudly. "A stalagmite might climb up to the ceiling someday." Grace and Kojo remained silent. Finally, Kojo exploded. "That's it?" "Uh, yeah.

As for why the three Keeley brothers were running around their neighborhood on a Sunday afternoon like crazed lunatics, grabbing all sorts of wacky stuff, well, it was their mother's fault. She was the one who had suggested, "If you boys are bored, play a board game!" So Kyle had gone down into the basement and dug up one of his all-time favorites: Mr. Lemoncello's Indoor-Outdoor Scavenger Hunt. It had been a huge hit for Mr. Lemoncello, the master game maker.

Kyle thought the Midwesterners looked like marching real-estate brokers. Or Charles Chiltington's cousins.