Martin Wilson's What They Always Tell Us hears the voices of the young as they struggle toward adulthood.

I read because one life isn't enough and in the pages of a book, I can be anybody.

Grandma, how old is she?" "Oh I don't know." Grandma said. "You'd have to cut off her head and count the rings in her neck.

Only the nonreader fears books.

Never trust an ugly woman. She's got a grudge against the world,' said Grandma who was no oil painting herself.

We don't write what we know. We write what we wonder about.

I read because one of these days I'm going to get out of this town, and I'm going to go everywhere and meet everybody, and I want to be ready