To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.

I was behaving, just like I promised, but fate intervened.

You don't have to fight dragons to write books. You just have to live deeply the life you've been given.

Everybody gets scared sometimes, May Belle. You don't have to be ashamed.

Teachers have almost stopped reading aloud to their classes because of the pressure of testing and tight curricula, but it is the books we read together and talk about together that bring us closer together.

It seems to me that there are two great enemies of peace - fear and selfishness.

We're alike, Jess would tell himself, me and Miss Edmunds . . . We don't belong at Lark Creek, Julia and me.