Quotes from Ann M. Martin

There are several other members of my family — but they're not people. We've got a puppy named Shannon — she's a Bernese mountain dog, and she's going to be huge some day. And Boo-Boo is Watson's cat. He's old and fat and kind of mean — but he's still part of the family. Plus, Karen and Andrew have two goldfish, Crystal Light the Second and Goldfishie.

I could pull out a book and start reading, but reading on a bus usually gives me a headache. Besides, I'd look like a total dork. (Too bad, because I was in the middle of The Catcher in the Rye, which is wonderful.)

one hider and all the other players are seekers. When a seeker finds the hider, he doesn't just win that round of the game, he hides with him. The next person to find the hiders hides with them, too, and so on until one seeker is left. That seeker is the loser and starts out the next round of the game as the hider. The tricky thing when you're the hider is finding a big enough hiding place in which to fit a whole lot of other people.

I wonder if the personality you have as a baby stays with you. My mom tells me that I started making finger paintings with my strained carrots and mashed peas. "An artist right from the beginning," she says. I looked around the room at my friends, trying to picture each of them as a baby. Had their infant personalities followed them as they grew?

Laine Cummings.)

Now my parents are divorced and I live in Connecticut with my mom and brother, but my dad still lives in California. All in all, I've flown back and forth across the country eleven times.

That's what happens when your parents want you to be a physicist.)

SUMMER PLAY GROUP

every other weekend. He can be a pain, so I don't mind this too much.)

I thought of Joey and Nate. Had they been happy babies too or had they always been nervous and shy? I had a feeling I knew the answer. Their personalities probably had a lot to do with the environment they'd grown up in. Mr. Nicholls was not exactly the sweet, loving, supportive type of parent I was used to, but I didn't want to judge him. I knew he was probably raising his kids the way he believed was right. Every parent has different ideas about how to bring up good kids.

I am not yelling!" I yelled.

Honestly, boys can be such pains.

But … something's wrong about this, " said Mary Anne."Something … I know what it is. Remember when we were first starting the club and we were deciding whether to invite Stacey to join? We didn't know her, so we asked her all sorts of things about the baby-sitting she did in New York. We wanted a club of good baby-sitters. Dedicated baby-sitters. Do you know anything about Janet and Leslie, Kristy?

No ripping the barre out of the wall.

Brian Williams, whom Mal knew slightly, who was playing with toy trucks in his front yard while his mother sat on the porch steps with his baby brother. Mal waved to Mrs. Williams and called hello to Brain.

He loves me, he loves me not

had a brush with death on an African safari.

The two-year-olds were standing over a pile of dirty forks and spoons, laughing hysterically. They're okay, Claudia said. No thanks to you, Mary Anne commented under her breath. If you're so concerned, why don't you teach Marnie and Ryan to play Parchessi? Claudia said, marching out of the room. They're already making a silverware sculpture! Mary Anne retorted. (Boy, was Mary Anne furious. She never talks like that).

I'm thirteen and five feet tall.

Kristy doesn't care much about her appearance. Her brown hair is usually sort of messy, and she wears clothes only because it's against the law to go to school naked.

Clearing the Brie from someone's arteries?" I said. I thought Seth and Mommy were going to fall over laughing. "Debris is stuff that's blown into the street. And that's what they mean by arteries — streets.

The whole club has been Abbified. Everyone had grown lazy while I was gone. Or maybe they weren't lazy. Maybe I was being too stubborn. (Hard to imagine, I know.) Sometimes you have to give a little to keep people happy.

It wasn't at all what I expected. I guess I've seen too many Fawlty Towers reruns with Mom, so I had pictured a run-down place with eccentric characters running around. The Cardington was as modern and comfy as a Holiday Inn.

the Bobbsey Twins