Quotes from Gordon Korman

Dan moved forward and replaced Jonah at the helm. I've got a plan! That's my man! The famous grin disappeared as Jonah took in the grim determination in Dan's features. His expression was as flat and expressionless as a naked skull. Dan steered the hurtling boat directly toward the rocky shore. Amy, hang onto that painting! That's not a plan! Jonah shouted. That's suicide!

They've got these things called lockers, I raved on. The Halls are lined with them. And you won't believe what they're for! They're for locking stuff away-so other people won't steal it! Why can't everyone share? ~ Cap

Hamilton dabbed a tissue at the cut under his eye. Except for the time I met the Great Khali, that was the coolest thing I've ever done! The foursome, only slightly the worse for wear, stood on the tarmac of the small airfield outside Milan, transferring their luggage from the limo to Jonah's jet for the flight back to Florence. You didn't do anything, yo, Jonah seethed. It was done to all of us by the freak show with the nerve to complain that the family branches are too violent!

Challenge isn't going to come from any curriculum, no matter how hard they make it. It's going to come from life.

Change of plan–, she called to Jonah. Can you drop us off in Rome? Yo, am I a movie star or a taxi service? Jonah grumbled from the depths of the script pile. Technically, your neither, Hamilton puffed, lifting weights again. I mean, you're a star and you've made movies ...

Nellie's brow furrowed. The great Mr. Hip-Hop Mogul standing in line with the common peasants? How do you figure that? Dan grinned. I'm starting to dig this 'no cars' thing. It's a great equalizer.

You two have to promise to be careful! Sinead handed Amy a small plastic bag. I made you a going-away present–a high-powered miniature smoke bomb. Could come in handy against the Vespers. It works with knockout gas, so I tossed in a couple of breathing filters. That's the Cahill equivalent of a Hallmark moment, Dan observed. A smoke bomb. When you care enough to send the very best–explosives. I'm not a flowers-and-candy kind of girl, Sinead informed him.

Fiske spoke sharply to the four walls. We need medical attention immediately. We have a gunshot wound that requires treatment. You're not going to get through to them by talking like an English professor, scoffed Reagan. Hey! she bawled. Get a doctor down here! She's in pain, thanks to you! What are you going to do about it?

They crested a rise, and there it was, in the hollow between rolling hills—a low, square building, ghostly gray in the moonlight. Is that it? asked Hamilton. It probably isn't the local opera house, groaned Ian.

If it isn't on YouTube, it might as well have never happened.

Amy, since when do you have a boyfriend?

Sugar maple! Mary-Todd Holt knelt over her husband. Are you all right? Eisenhower sat up, and egg-size lump blooming on his crown. Of course I'm all right! he managed, his words slurred. You think a little insect can stop me ? Reagan was unconvinced. I don't know, Dad. She brained you with a baseball bat! Hockey stick, Dan corrected. Those could be your last words, brat–

Hamilton was bug-eyed. Who are those people? Jonah held his head. Man, I should have known it was a mistake to say I'd be leaving town soon! Why do fans have to be so literal? Are they going to let us go get the faxes? Hamilton asked. Jonah stared at him. You're kidding, right?

Be the Ambulance. Make toast.

What did Romeo and Juliet do?" They died," I remind her gently. "Some mix-up with the poison-

The test! It was as if they believed the test was an infallible superbeing that had descended to earth on a great space ark surrounded by thunderbolts of perfection.

If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck.

What was so wrong about the old me that now I have to be somebody else?

I've been victimized but that doesn't mean I have to be a victim.

According to the mate, there were three main jobs that needed to be done to ensure their survival.

Why? There was no logical explanation for what I did. It had to come from my DNA. That's why I needed ancestry.com.

They don't have regular time at school, you know. They have periods. All of a sudden an alarm goes off and you're supposed to drop what you're doing and rush off to a different room with a different teacher to do something completely different! How can anybody learn like that?

We're all proud of you, Donnie. Your mother and me, Katie—" "Right," I snorted. "She said I'm dumber than her bladder-challenged dog.

Welcome to the world of Cahills. If it isn't impossible, it isn't worth doing.