Quotes About Youth

Time for bed." I held my fist out. One by one, my flock stacked theirs on top, and then we headed up into the trees to sleep the sleep of the innocent. Well, okay, maybe not so innocent. But the sleep of the much less guilty than others, for sure.

Jane-Sweetie, we've talked about your weight- my mother began. I'm only eight years old, I said. How about I promise to be anorexic later?

Yeah," said Iggy. "But what now? Let's do something fun." I guess being on the run from bloodthirsty Erasers and insane scientists wasn't enough fun for him. Kids today are so spoiled.

But if I could do anything? Maybe you would want to be able to save the world, the Voice said. Did you ever think of that? No. I frowned. Leave that to the grown-ups. But grown-ups are the ones destroying the world, the Voice said. Think about it.

You're a brave, brave girl, Tula Gaby told her. I know, said the little girl. I got it from you.

That's right: Never underestimate the power of a good laugh. It can stop some of the fiercest middle-school monsters.

wanted that to be my bedroom," he says. "It'd be so easy to sneak out at night to TP yards, egg cars, and punch people." Yes, Stevie has an active social life.

bleachers at a Little League

FYI, car crashes kill way more kids than cancer does. Those crosses you see on the side of the highway, the little white ones hung with fading silk flowers? They're for people my age. ("People who were texting," my dad liked to remind me—because he never wanted to blame Budweiser for anything.)

Adolescents were the most wretched humans of all.

The one thing in the world that can screw up a good education, derail career plans, and generally mess with your head: love.

This was the weird, scary stuff Denny and Mitch lived for. Every afternoon, they would gather up their papers to sell and hoof it over to the library to check the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) website for wherever rush-hour traffic was at its worst. Logjams were their meat.

that kid's nothing but a little hoodlum.

Stevie Kosgrov recently enjoyed a bowl of Fruity Pebbles (with milk that had hit its expiration date, oh, maybe a month ago).

FUNNYHURRICANEKID.

There is no such thing as a kid who hates reading. There are kids who love reading, and kids who are reading the wrong books.

I mean Zeke McDonald and Kenny Patel, the left and right butt cheeks of Cathedral School of the Arts.

It's just you, your homework, and the homework room. All. Day. Long. I turned thirteen in that room. Winter ended, and then spring came and went. Wars happened. Trees grew. Babies were born and people died.

sheepish. "My job is to give these kids guidance on mise-en-scène

Hernandez, on the other hand, was a physical specimen—even at seventeen.

I vill now destroy de Snickuhs bahrs!" Gazzy barked. Then the five of us were laughing—literally in the face of death.

so imagine the day your great-great-grandmother was born. Got it? Now go back another hundred years or so. And then another hundred. That's about when they built Hills Village Middle School. Of course, I think it was a prison for Pilgrims back then, but not too much has changed. Now it's a prison for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.

Um, hi." I finally squeak out a few words. "The other day at school, we had this substitute teacher. Very tough. Sort of like Mrs. Darth Vader. Had the heavy breathing, the deep voice. During roll call, she said, 'Are you chewing gum, young man?' And I said, 'No, I'm Jamie Grimm.' " I wait (for what seems like hours) and, yes, the audience kind of chuckles. It's not a huge laugh, but it's a start. Okay.

James Patterson