Quotes from Jeanne Birdsall

Toward the urn the three children raced in a dead heat, Jane still shouting . FOR CHURCHILL, NELSON, AND PRINCE WILLIAM!

While in her heart Batty knew that Ginevra was a nice person, she sometimes couldn't help wondering if nice people could also be show-offs.

Maybe I can drown him in the lily pond.

It wasn't a rock. It was a dog's rubber bone, left behind months ago to be buried first under autumn leaves, then winter snow. Just an old rubber bone, but Batty was already braced for what she knew would come—the rushing in her ears, the stab in her stomach, and the seeping away of the colors from her world. The soft blue spring sky, the yellow forsythia hedge, even Ben's bright red hair—all dulled, all gray and wretched.

Penderwick took off his glasses and cleaned them on his sleeve.

That was when he'd smiled, and after all that seriousness, his smile was a revelation, like a rainbow after a storm, like spring after winter, like dawn after the darkest night. She stopped, opened her notebook, and wrote that down. His smile was a revelation, like a rainbow after a storm, like spring after winter, like dawn after the darkest night. She read it out loud as she wrote.

Mrs. Tifton had cut off Jane's ha-ha-ha before it even began. Lydia thought this was probably a good thing.

Is this his eye or his tooth?" asked Aunt Claire, waving around another puzzle piece.

Even the rest of the cast would feel sorry for her.

I do, too, understand. Rosalind wants to find creepy ladies for Daddy so we don't have to worry about stepmothers.

Aunt Claire, I apologize to you too, since you probably had to pretend you weren't my aunt." "Apology accepted." Aunt Claire smiled, which did much to lighten Skye's heart. "I must say your mad charge at Melissa was impressive. Perhaps you should switch to ice hockey or professional wrestling." "Claire, please be serious," said Mr. Penderwick. "I am being serious.

This set off a series of additional questions from Batty, which Iantha gracefully took on, giving Rosalind the chance to slip away unnoticed. She crossed the street to the Geigers' house, headed round to the back, and knocked on the kitchen door, just as she'd done a thousand times before.

So she was always in the middle of at least one book and felt safe only if she had several more on standby.

Fire, Sun, Sand, and Sea, Listen now and hear my plea. Humbly do I ask of thee, Please bring what I wish to me.

Do you think she'll want to later? Rosalind, I mean, not Aunt Claire. I mean, I'm sure Aunt Claire could do football drills if she wanted to, but I'd rather have Ros—I mean…" Tommy had trailed off into an embarrassed silence. Skye

Snooty high heels.

Sorry. That's the name of the boy who poured glue on you at day care, right?" "He poured glue on everybody," said Batty darkly.

Just in case Skye finished with Birches and attempted to scrub the beach.

Holy bananas, said Skye.

I did know a girl in middle school who made hand puppets from her boyfriends' socks," said Aunt Claire. "I don't know if she talked to the puppets, but she did make the puppets talk to her.

She sat down again. "Oh, Dominic, love has no measure." "What?" "I mean, yes, please kiss me.

revealing Jane in all her blood-soaked glory,

Lydia stopped dancing - struck, paralyzed by a sensation of no longer being here, this night, now. A feeling that she was instead living inside a memory, of a precious place and time, one lost and greatly mourned. As strange as this was, Lydia knew what was happening to her. It could be nothing else: Already she was homesick for Arundel, and could hardly bear it.

A history lesson disguised as a story,