All tagged First Pages
āāMiss Foster!ā Mr. Sweeneyās nasal voice cut through Sophieās blaring music as he yanked her earbuds out by the cords. āHave you decided that youāre too smart to pay attention to this information?ā
Sophie forced her eyes open. She tried not to wince as the bright fluorescents reflected off the vivid blue walls of the museum, amplifying the headache she was hiding.ā
āSimon Snow did what he came to do.
What they all said he would do someday. He found the big baddieāhe found twoāand he finished them off.
He didnāt expect to live through it. And he hadnāt.
Baz once told him that everything was a story, and that Simon was the hero.ā
āDrake didnāt see the kingās soldier coming. He was busy digging in the onion patch. He pulled out a fat, white onion. A worm crawled on it. Drake didnāt mind the worm. He was the son of a farmer. HIs family had been growing onions in the Kingdom of Bracken forever. He would spend his life digging up onions, whether he wanted to or not.ā
~ from Dragon Masters: Rise of the Earth Dragon by Tracey West
āCarl Sagan said that if you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. When he says āfrom scratchā, he means from nothing. He means from a time before the world even existed. If you want to make an apple pie from nothing at all, you have to start with the Big Bang and expanding universes, neutrons, ions, atoms, black holes, suns, moons, ocean tides, the Milky Way, Earth, evolution, dinosaurs, extinction-level events, playtupuses, Homo erectus, Cro-Magnon man, etc. You have to start at the beginning.ā
~from The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
"Clay didn't think he was the right dragon for a Big Heroic Destiny.
Oh, he wanted to be. He wanted to be the great MudWing savior of the dragon world, glorious and brave. He wanted to do all the wonderful things expected of him. He wanted to look at the world, figure out what was broken, and fix it." ~ Tui T. Sutherland
First Lines: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." ~ Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Last year I posted a 12 Must-Have Picture Books for the 12 Days of Christmas. The list contains some classics and some newer ones, but they are all picture book 'must-haves' for any young bibliophile (or older ones too). My friend suggested that I make a list for older kids that other people could reference for great gifts for different age groups.
Well, I don't feel exactly qualified to do so. Why? Because while I have read thousands of picture books, I am not as well read in early chapter books, middle grade books, or YA books. So I may curate a list with some input from some other knowledgeable friends, but in the meantime, I thought I'd place all my First Lines novels in one place along with book summaries in case you might want to gift one to a friend or family member this holiday season.
"'Finders Keepers! Hee Hee!'
'Grabbing my notebook out of my hands isn't finders keepers. Zita?'
'This wasn't here yesterday."
'It looks like a meteoroid.'"
"Sophie had waited all her life to be kidnapped. But tonight, all the other children of Gavaldon writhed in their beds. If the School Master took them, they'd never return."
"Everyone thinks it was because of the snow. And in a way, I suppose that's true."
"Garrison Griswold whistled his way down Market Street, silver hair bobbing atop his head like a pigeon wing. He tapped his trademark walking stick, striped in Bayside Press colors, to the beat of his tune."
"The big question is: Is Origami Yoda real?
Well, of course he's real. I mean he's a real finger paper made out of a real piece of paper."
"I've read many more books than you. It doesn't matter how many you've read. I've read more. Believe me. I've had the time."
First Pages: Eleanor & Park
"XTC was no good for drowning out the morons at the back of the bus."
As promised, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight is the second book in our first pages study session this month in honor of National Novel Writing Month. Why? Again because both the Harry Potter series and The Twilight Saga were instrumental in changing the face of children's book publishing.
"I'd never given much thought to how I would die--though I'd had reason enough in the last few months--but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this."
First Lines: In the years I've participated in National Novel Writing Month in the past, I was part of a large group of women writers who would send messages of encouragement during the month. One of the first posts was inevitably "First Lines" in which we would share the first lines of the novel we were working on. I thought it would be fun to dissect and discover the First Lines/First Pages of some of the best YA/middle grade novels.
The first? Harry Potter, of course.
