She wondered if this was true of every parent: if, prior to having children, they all used to be someone else.

Ask a kid who's struggling in math if he likes being in a mixed-level class, and he'll tell you he feels like a moron. Ask the math genius if he likes being in a mixed-level class, and he'll tell you he's sick of doing all the work during group projects. Sometimes, it's better to sort like with like.

is it like this every night, while we're asleep?

Sara: "You are so brave," I tell her, and then I smile. "When I grow up, I want to be just like you." To my surprise, Kate shakes her head hard. Her voice is a feather, a thread. "No Mommy," she says. "You'd be sick.

How do you walk into someone's life again after twenty-eight years? How do you pick up, when you were too young to know where you left off.

It never failed to amaze me how the most ordinary day could be catapulted into the extraordinary in the blink of an eye.

A girl who is thirteen-which is hard, and difficult, and beautiful, and painful, and exhilarating.