"Sophie had waited all her life to be kidnapped. But tonight, all the other children of Gavaldon writhed in their beds. If the School Master took them, they'd never return."
All in First Pages
First Pages: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
"Far away from here, following the Jade River, there was once a black mountain that cut into the sky like a jagged piece of rough metal. The villagers called it Fruitless Mountain because nothing grew on it and birds and animals did not rest there."
First Pages: The Fault in Our Stars
"Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death."
First Pages: If I Stay
"Everyone thinks it was because of the snow. And in a way, I suppose that's true."
First Pages: Book Scavenger
"Garrison Griswold whistled his way down Market Street, silver hair bobbing atop his head like a pigeon wing. He tapped his trademark walking stick, striped in Bayside Press colors, to the beat of his tune."
First Pages: The Hunger Games
"When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping."
First Pages: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
"The big question is: Is Origami Yoda real?
Well, of course he's real. I mean he's a real finger paper made out of a real piece of paper."
First Pages: Everything, Everything
"I've read many more books than you. It doesn't matter how many you've read. I've read more. Believe me. I've had the time."
First Pages: Eleanor & Park
First Pages: Eleanor & Park
"XTC was no good for drowning out the morons at the back of the bus."
First Pages: Twilight
As promised, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight is the second book in our first pages study session this month in honor of National Novel Writing Month. Why? Again because both the Harry Potter series and The Twilight Saga were instrumental in changing the face of children's book publishing.
"I'd never given much thought to how I would die--though I'd had reason enough in the last few months--but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this."
First Pages: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
First Lines: In the years I've participated in National Novel Writing Month in the past, I was part of a large group of women writers who would send messages of encouragement during the month. One of the first posts was inevitably "First Lines" in which we would share the first lines of the novel we were working on. I thought it would be fun to dissect and discover the First Lines/First Pages of some of the best YA/middle grade novels.
The first? Harry Potter, of course.