Middle school's amazing. It is extraordinary. An extraordinary time.

I wanted to be a librarian from a very young age. Some of my earliest memories are being taken to the local library. I ended up working as a bookseller. Becoming a writer was the logical offshoot of being a reader.

You need to play to win. But you also need to win ... to play.

Distance makes everything beautiful.

Marethyu stretched out his right hand and Aten took it in his. "Let me tell you this," the hook-handed man said. "We will meet again,you and I,in a different place and a different time." "You know this to be true?" "I do." "Because you have seen the future?" "Because I have been there.

There was no honor in war, less in killing, and none in dying. But there was true dignity in how men comported themselves in battle. And there was always honor to be found in standing for a just cause and defending the defenseless.

Adults, Sophie has decided a long time before, were really bad at making up good excuses.