Anyone who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.

Because nobody but a reader ever became a writer.

September 11 We thought we'd outdistanced history Told our children it was nowhere near; Even when history struck Columbine, It didn't happen here. We took down the maps in the classroom, And when they were safely furled, We told the young what they wanted to hear, That they were immune from a menacing world. But history isn't a folded-up map, Or an unread textbook tome; Now we know history's a fireman's child Waiting at home alone.

With the poetry of plain speaking, Shannon Hitchcock recreates the daily drama of a vanished world.

But put two librarians' heads together, and mountains move.

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

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