middle-grade

And turnips - endless ruptured turnips.

You__e not mending anything, remember, Sand? The hedge._ He paused and shook his head at himself. __nd Perrotte__ away for a few minutes, and you__e talking to yourself again.

The truth is . . . Well, the truth is the truth, and thus worth telling, but sometimes truths are so complicated that it__ exhausting to get them out in the right order._ He glanced up at her. That sounded like an evasion if ever she__ heard one. She raised an eyebrow.

How did you get into the castle, Alexandre, son of Gilles Smith?_ Sand shrugged. __ saint kidnapped me from his shrine and put me into a fireplace here. So I guess the answer is, a miracle of Saint Melor. Or so I think. He has not told me._ __f you are trying to antagonize him, you are doing a good job,_ Perrotte whispered. Sand scuffed his shoe at her. ____ just telling the truth!_ __ou__e very good at telling it in the most maddening way possible.___hank you?

Looking at my reflection tonight, I see a new girl staring back at me. She has big hair and big eyes and a big heart. Not only is she the perfect size and pretty...she is smart. -Mackenzie

Then that night there was an early frost, and by Sunday morning, autumn had truly arrived. The sky was a rich cloudless blue, the air still and dry, the maple trees glowing with glorious reds and oranges and yellows, and everywhere on Gardam Street squirrels bustled about with self-importance, burying their nuts in the most unlikely places.

Dad has shamelessly played the Mom card. Against which there is no defense.

I turn back to the Archers, who don__ look like the same species as us. Do they even sweat, these people?

It was one flickering ember that was almost smothered to death daily. But it just wouldn__ quit_ it was hope.

At this moment, I know that the answer has to be yes. I am defeated. By my own father. How Darth Vader.

I'd always known that when you went through one of these doors, you went to another planet, and that that other planet might be so far away, you couldn't fly there in spaceship in a million years. Somehow, the whole thing had never seemed strange before today.

I have certainly heard of the Subtle Art of Shutting Up, but I can't say I've practiced it all that much. I greatly prefer the underappreciated genius of Speaking My Mind. I figure if someone doesn't like what I have to say, they shouldn't put their ears in close proximity to my mouth.

Sometimes I think teachers like Ms. Harmer view creativity as something dirty and slightly embarrassing, and would prefer to turn kids into people who color inside the lines.Generally speaking, I don't care much for lines.

What's all this nonsense about odd vision and not fitting in? There are plenty worse things in this world than not fitting in--like fitting in way too much. You strike me as a real original, Izzy Malone, in a world that loves carbon copies. If you think you beautified something, I believe you. I've never understood why folks love safe, neutral colors so much. Colors are what make this world worth living in.

Your mother would have more luck winning her election than teaching you how to be charming. Izzy Malone, going to charm school! Are you going to walk across the room with a book stuck on your head?""No, it's not like that at all," I said as he doubled over with laughter. "And I really don't see what's so funny.""It's just that"--he gasped--"it would be like teaching a hippo to wear high heels!

The bracelet and the first charm appeared the day I punched Austin Jackson in the nose. I didn't mean to slug him. His face just got in my way. It was a bruising end to a disastrous first month in middle school.

As for learning to wear high heels, no need to worry. I've got no tolerance for those dreadful things. If God wanted us girls tottering around like a bunch of drunken sailors, we'd have been born wearing stilts!

Turns out, most girls would rather put on lip gloss than play with sand toads.