A bully with charisma and top marks is still a bully. He’ll probably end up Prime Minister one day. God help us all.

So we forgive each other?” The crooked smile climbs up one more time. “Again?”And I look right into his eyes, right into him as far as I can see, because I want him to hear...

They’re the ones who are asking for too little.

Welcome,” says the Mayor,” to the New Prentisstown.

Who cares even if I didn’t?!” Conor shouted back. “They’re just stupid berries. Woo-hoo, so scary. Oh, please, please, save me from the berries!”The monster looked at him quizzically. How strange, it said. The words...

A man without a filter, is chaos walking

That’s the thing I’m learning about being thrown out on yer own. Nobody does nothing for you. If you don’t change it, it don’t get changed.

His noise is getting quieter, but I can still see it there still-See how he feels the skin of my hand against his, see how he wants to take it and press it against his...

Being a leader is making the people you love hate you a little more each day.

We would do what we must. The world is big. Surely there is a space in it for one like you and one like me.

You actually said the word effing.

He is worse than the others, I show. He is worst of all of them.Because–Because he knew he was doing wrong. He felt the pain of his actions–But he did not amend them, shows the...

I don’t think it’s about making us fall. It’s about how we get up again.

The justifications of men who kill should always be heard with skepticism, said the monster.

You do not write your life with words…You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.

I don’t believe in guardian angels,” Regine says seriously. “Just people who are there for you and people who aren’t

In this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed.

Ow, Todd? Ow?

To say you have no choice is to relieve yourself of responsibility.

I was a hugely unchaperoned reader, and I would wander into my local public library and there sat the world, waiting for me to look at it, to find out about it, to discover who...

Ready to grow up, Todd?” the Mayor asks.

Todd?”And Aaron wrenches his arms and there’s a CRACK and a scream and a cut-off yelp that tears my heart in two forever and forever.And the pain is too much it’s too much it’s too...

His absence is so big it’s like he’s there.

Ah, well, then you’ve never stood on a beach as the waves came crashing in, the water stretching out from you until it’s beyond sight, moving and blue and alive and so much bigger than...

Poo,” Manchee’s says quietly.

Choices may be unbelievably hard but they’re never impossible. To say you have no choice is to release yourself from responsibility and that’s not how a person with integrity acts.

Besides, what was more perfect an object than a book? The different rags of paper, smooth or rough under your fingers. The edge of the page pressed into your thumbprint as you turned a new...

It’s not how we fall. It’s how we get back up again.

And then his noise falls completely silent-And he stops struggling-And looking right into my eyes-He dies.My Todd dies.

He answered the phone to his daughter with a broken but joyous heart, ready to speak with her of astonishment and wonder.

Free, I think. They’re free.(is this why she joined them?)I feel so-So relieved.I pick up the pace as I near the opening, my hands gripping my rifle but I have a feeling I ain’t gonna...

… a good idea always attracts other good ideas.

Cuz how do you know yer alive if you don’t hurt?

I wanted so badly for there to be more. I ached for there to be more than my crappy little life.’ He shakes his head. ‘And there was more. I just couldn’t see it.

What a sad thing men are. Can’t do nothing good without being so weak we have to mess it up. Can’t build something up without tearing it down.

He is sorry-For everything-For Prentisstown-For Viola-For Ben-For every failure and every wrong-For letting his pa down-And he’s looking up at me-And he’s begging me-He’s begging me-Like I’m the only one who can forgive him-Like it’s...

You won’t,” says the Mayor, smiling again. “Everyone knows you aren’t a killer, Todd.”He pushes Viola forward again -She calls out from the pain of it -Viola, I think -Viola -I grit my teeth and...

He’s seeing the actual Milky Way streaked across the sky. The whole of his entire galaxy, right there in front of him. Billions and billions of stars. Billions and billions of worlds. All of them,...

Librarians are tour-guides for all of knowledge.

Stories are important, the monster said. They can be more important than anything. If they carry the truth.

You be as angry as you need to be,” she said. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Not your grandma, not your dad, no one. And if you need to break things, then by God,...

It’s a girl,” I say.It’s a girl.

And if one day,’ she said, really crying now, ‘you look back and you feel bad for being so angry, if you feel bad for being so angry at me that you couldn’t even speak...

And right on cue, Viola yells, ” TODD!”And I hit him with everything I got -Every bit of her behind me -Every piece of anger and frustrayshun and nothingness -Every moment I didn’t see her...

Everybody was hoping for something, talking about our new life to come and all that they hoped from it. Fresh air, whatever that’s supposed to mean. Real gravity, instead of the fake kind that broke...

Stories are the wildest things of all. Stories chase and bite and hunt.

Stories don’t always have happy endings.”This stopped him. Because they didn’t, did they? That’s one thing the monster had definitely taught him. Stories were wild, wild animals and went off in directions you couldn’t expect.

It’s not that you should never love something so much that it can control you.It’s that you need to love something that much so you can never be controlled.It’s not a weakness.It’s your best strength.

HEREIt’s-Can I say?It’s like the song of a family where everything’s always all right, it’s a song of belonging that makes you belong just by hearing it, it’s a song that’ll always take care of...

Shout for libraries. Shout for the young readers who use them.