Quotes from Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

How many girls?" Mother asked. "Two, now," Peter answered. "I mean three. Three girls!" He looked quickly at Jake. " Three girls, all right. I counted." Mother studied him curiously.

Wally Hatford, huh? , Caroline said to herself. Well, the Hatfords would soon find out they were no match for the Malloys.

I supposed we could just ring the doorbell and say, 'Look, let's bury the hatchet and be friends,'" Beth suggested. The girls looked at each other and smiled a little. "Naw," said Caroline. "This is a lot more fun.

Eddie, Beth, and Caroline, this is . . ." She paused, waiting for the boys to say their own names. "Josh," said Jake. "Jake," said Josh. "Peter," said Wally. "Wally," said Peter.

Now, what's this all about?" she demanded. "They started it, Mom," said Caroline, wringing out the tail of her shirt. "We did not!" said Jake hotly. Eddie turned the hose on Josh." "He dropped his bucket on purpose!" cried Beth. "I did not!" said Josh. Mrs. Malloy looked around curiously. "You kids hardly know each other! How did you get to be enemies so soon?" Wally looked at Caroline. I dare you, his eyes told her.

pretending that Shiloh's a bear, tryin' to get in. The more they squeal, the more Shiloh wiggles about, tryin' to get his nose under the edge of the sheet, tail going ninety miles an hour. If that dog had wings, he'd fly, except his propeller would be on the wrong end.

I sure wasn't going to ask Aunt Sally, because if she told me once that getting your period was like a moth becoming a butterfly, she'd probably say that sexual intercourse was like a deer getting antlers or something.

But I also know that you can lie not only by what you say but what you don't say.

rattly bridge where the road curves by the old

He had to interview Caroline Malloy? He had to let her interview him ?—to ask questions about what he liked, how he lived, what he ate ? And then, as though that weren't enough, he had to be Caroline for a day? Did Miss Applebaum go to Torture School to come up with these projects or did she think them up all by herself in the dead of night?

Well, I know what I want to be too," she told her parents. "An actress on Broadway." "Caroline, you're always onstage, twenty-four hours a day," said her father. "You can't even tie your shoes without making a production of it." Caroline wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not.

He slowly unfolded it, cleared his throat, scratched his head, and said, "Would you rather go to the dentist or throw up?" Good grief , thought Caroline, as the minutes ticked by. How was he supposed to be her for a day if he didn't ask any better questions than that?

I don't care , she thought angrily, turning all her anger back onto Wally again. I am going to make him as miserable as I can this Christmas, and if we're both stuck in fourth grade for the rest of our lives, he'll be sorry he ever heard the name Malloy.

There's only one way to find out," said Eddie, smiling slightly. Beth turned to her sister. "Spy on them?" "Exactly." Caroline began to feel all warm inside again, though not, she knew, with the Christmas spirit. Eddie and Beth were back in her corner again, making plans, and that was right where she wanted them to be.

Mind if we check the other rooms to make sure?" an officer asked Dad. "Please do," said Father. "If there's a body lying around up here, I want to know about it.

You know, Jean, maybe it's a good thing we had all girls. If those Hatford boys belonged to us, we'd be in a mental ward.

Outside, Wally, Josh, and Jake stared at each other. "You want to spend the night in the Bensons' garage?" asked Jake. "How about a one-way ticket to Texas?" moaned Josh.

Mother went back inside when the police had gone, but Dad did not. Instead he walked to the edge of the porch, cupped his hands over his mouth, and bellowed like a bull moose. "Wallace, Joshua, and Joseph! Get in here! Now !" "You want to spend the night in the woods?" Wally whispered to his brothers. "He'd just come looking for us," said Josh.

They came out of the bushes as their father yelled again, crossed the road, and went up the steps to the porch, where Mr. Hatford held the door open for them. Whenever Dad held the door open, Wally always felt like a prisoner going into his cell.

Boys fell for so many things you wouldn't think they'd believe. It was really incredible. None of her friends back home had been quite so stupid.

But . . . but what will we talk about? We can't just sit here staring at each other and stuffing cookies in our mouths!" Beth had protested, and Caroline noticed that her cheeks were strangely pink. "Why, Beth, we'll talk about whatever comes to mind. With eleven people in a room, it shouldn't be hard to think of something to say.

Caroline Malloy, the Crazie, went after her sister with a hammer. Missed, but I can imagine what the hammer did to the floor.

Wait til Halloween! That was the battle cry these days, except that neither Caroline nor her sisters were sure exactly how Halloween would change things.

What their parents didn't understand was that Caroline and her sisters could no more go without getting even than they could go without breathing. In fact, half the fun of getting even was to see what the boys would think up next, just so Caroline, Beth, and Eddie could get even all over again. They'd never had so much excitement back in Ohio.