this lullaby by Sarah Dessen

Definitely a young adult book and not one for intermediate. That being said, I think this book deals well with some powerful themes.

All I knew about the seventies was what I'd learned in school and from the History Channel: Vietnam, President Carter, disco.

Don would become my stepfather, joining a not-so-exclusive group.

Not that I liked the setting, particularly; the place was a total dump, mostly because four guys lived there and none of them had ever been introduced formally to a bottle of Lysol.

Point two: he was a slob. His shirttail was always out, his tie usually had a stain, his hair, while curly and thick, sprung out from his head wildly in a mad-scientist sort of fashion. Also, his shoelaces were continually untied. He was all loose ends, and I hated loose ends.

People like Dexter followed risks the way dogs followed smells, thinking only of what could lie ahead and never logically of what probably did.

Good passage for a freewrite:

After all, Paul met just about every criteria on my guy list. He was tall. Good-looking. Had no annoying personal habits. Was older than me but not by more than three years. Was a decent dresser but didn't shop more than I did. Fell within the acceptable limits in terms of personal hygiene (i.e., aftershave and cologne yes, mousse and fake tan, no). Was smart enough to carry on good conversation but not an eggbert. But the big whammy, the tipping point, was that he was leaving at the end of the summer and we'd already established that we would part as friends and go our separate ways.

As a firm believer in the rip-it-off-like-a-Band-Aid school of bad news, I had to tell her.

Sentences from Hope Rising

Hope Rising by Kim Meeder is about a ranch in Oregon that rescues horses and then uses the horses to heal the wounded spirits of children.

After riding two of our most gentle horses, a flicker, a glimmer, a tiny glow of hope began to emerge.

Fear, which had shadowed their entire lives like a stealthy predator, could not rule them in this place.

Dawn poured over the land in a butter-colored wave.

Miscellaneous Selections

The breezes are warm and the moon is as bright as a golden doubloon. -- Snowed in with Grandmother Silk by Carol Fenner

When there were only glowing embers and an occasional flit of a flame in the fireplace, Ruddy's grandmother closed the glass fireplace doors. -- Snowed in with Grandmother Silk by Carol Fenner

My full and proper name is Douglas MacArthur Hanson. -- Invisible by Pete Hautman

Madham has 109 buildings, all scratch-built. There are two lakes, a football stadium, a cement plant, a hospital, two tunnels, a forest, and sixty feet of track. It has a population of 289 plastic people, seventeen dogs, six cows, and eleven horses. -- Invisible by Pete Hautman

My mother is used to my father's hyperlogical rages. She simply smiled and said, "I understand, dear." -- Invisible by Pete Hautman

"In this job," Morgan told me after a dinner rush, "You get a lifetime of experience every day. A crisis will crop up, worsen, come to a head and resolve itself all in fifteen to thirty minutes. You don't even have time to panic. You just push through." --keeping the moon by Sarah Dessen

A good passage with which to inspire a freewrite:

No one ever really teaches you how to dance. I was kind of moving back and forth, looking down like everyone else. I couldn't even find myself in the crowd reflected in the cafeteria windows. That was nice.

There was a girl standing next to me with glasses and long hair, and when I looked over she smiled shyly. The music was good and I relaxed, letting myself move a little bit more, copying some of the moves I saw other people making. Maybe this would be different, this school. Maybe I would make friends.

I kept dancing, thinking this, and I realized suddenly why people liked to dance; it did feel good. fun, even.

Then I heard it. Someone laughing. The noise started off quietly, but as the music was dying down, the song changing, it got louder. I looked up, still dancing, to see a boy across the cafeteria with his cheeks puffed out, moving like a hippopotamus, his legs straight and locked, rocking back and forth. Everyone was standing around watching him, giggling. The more they laughed, the more pronounced he became; sticking out his tongue, rolling his eyes back in his head.

It took a few seconds to realize that he was imitating me. And by that point everyone was staring.

I stopped moving. The music changed and I glanced around me to see that the girl with the glasses was gone; everyonewas gone. I'd been all alone, dancing, in my big fat Misses Plus jeans and new shirt. --keeping the moon by Sarah Dessen

Wizards of the Game by David Lubar

I took the stairs four at a time, using the railing to make the turn at the landing the way a space probe uses the sun as a sling to build velocity.

I stayed on the computer until I got booted off. Not by a power surge, but the old-fashioned way -- by Mom pointing out it was time for bed.

"He have great reflect and agitation for you."

Dadisms

My dad was "famous" for his dadisms:

"Ship up or shape out!!"

"I'm going to bot your swottom."

In Jean Ferris's Once Upon a Marigold there are some wonderful dadisms:

As Ed would say, he'd buttered his bread and now he had to lie in it.

Finally, near dawn he drifted off, figuring that there was nothing he could do about it now; it was all spilled milk over the dam.

But it was too late now to lock the barn door after the wolf in sheep's clothing was stolen.

Sentences stalked by my 5th graders with active verbs

First of all close your eyes and take three deep cleansing breaths. --Star Struck --stalked by Catalina
Dameon took the rollcard and walked out the door. -- Wayside School is Falling Down --stalked by Asne
Children came and went some were taken in or adopted. -- Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech - stalked by Claire
Miss Blimp raps her pointer stick so hard, practically breaking it before people settle down. --Al Capone Does My Shirts --stalked by Daniela
She said this in a cheery voice, but afterwards in the small silence, when no one commented on her pies, she gave a soft sigh and looked down on her plate. -- Walk Two Moons -- stalked by Carlos Javier
Ladies in the court had screamed; one had fainted. --Graceling --stalked by Luis
He came through the trees and saw the two dogs - Big shaggy Beelzebub and petite well groomed Hecate. -- Once Upon a Marigold -- stalked by Mabel
When Christy finished, he bellowed "Yes! and turned his attention to Raymond. -- The 6th Grade Nickname Game - stalked by Sooji
As the stupefied highschoolers left the scene they looked back. --Maniac Magee - stalked by Antoine
So there you stand, poor Mr. Steenwilly, tapping your foot and waving your baton while sweat runs through your thinning hair, and in your mind you are hearing lovely John Philip Sousa. --You Don't Know Me --stalked by Dylan
He pointed his thumb in the direction of his own house, and then wiped his hair off his forehead. -- Bridge to Terabithia - stalked by Andrea
Then, in one sudden movement he reached down and struck Klaus across the face. --The Bad Beginning -- stalked by Laura
He did not let go and she snapped at him. -- Julie of the Wolves --stalked by Salvador
Mrs. Zarves assigns us lots of busy work so we don't have time to think. -- Wayside School is Falling Down -- stalked by Daniel

A Few Sentences From Christmas Vacation Reading

Oh dear, Victor thought, she's wearing gondola earrings. -- The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

"And you, Ernesto," Ida replied, "probably have a wallet where other people had a heart." -- The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

But no baby was going to defeat her. She picked up the nearest one and sat down at the table. With one hand tight around his belly, she fed him with the other. The process was messy, like pitching coal onto a moving train. -- In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord

But things thoughtlessly done are never so easily undone. -- In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord

He was tall, about fifty, with darkly handsome, almost sinister features: a neatly trimmed mustache, hair turning silver at the temples, and eyes so black they were like the tinted windows of a sleek limousine - he could see out, but you couldn't see in. --Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Although that story was not, in fact, true, Armstrong House was a lion of a house. It gloated and glowered and loomed. It even had a curving colonnade that reached out like a giant paw as if to swat the Oglethorpe Club off its high horse across the street. -- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

"How old are you?" asked Sakiah.
"In human years, or teacher yers?" Miss Pointy answered, and then quickly called on someone else. -- Sahara Special by Esme Raji Codell

"We are not voting," said Miss Pointy, her arms crossed like she does when she's waiting. "Stories are not a democracy. Thank God." -- Sahara Special by Esme Raji Codell

Time moved more quickly with my book friends than my real friends. -- Sahara Special by Esme Raji Codell

My mind felt like it was trying to carry a pie pan full of water and if I wasn't careful, it would splash and spill. -- Sahara Special by Esme Raji Codell

"Any of you ever read a textbook under the blankets, with a flashlight?. . . Anyone ever recommend a textbook to a friend? Did you ever say, 'This is so great! You've got to read this!'?. . . Anyone cry at the end of a textbook?. . . Well, they make lovely paperweights anyway, don't you think?" -- Sahara Special by Esme Raji Codell

Some of the girls at school thought Rachel was stuck-up, but I knew she wasn't. For real, shy girls usually aren't. They usually care more than anyone else about what other people think. It's like they're walking on ice and the ice is other people's opinions. -- Sahara Special by Esme
Raji Codell

It [boxing] also takes the ability to deal with two aspects of pain: the anticipation that you will be hurt, perhaps badly, and the knowledge that you can stop more pain simply by quitting. -- The Greatest by Walter Dean Myers

His style - straight, crisp punches and avoiding being hit - impressed the international judges. -- The Greatest by Walter Dean Myers

Who was Cassius Clay? He was a black man who had grown up in a racist South, who had seen black men reaching for brooms when they should have been reaching for the stars. -- The Greatest by Walter Dean Myers

But today he'd found a ring with a big shiny pink stone, a collapsible telescope, a book of Greek myths, an almost-new leather jerkin, and a flask half full (he knew there were some people who would have said half empty) of a quite palatable wine - rather frisky, with some floral notes and a nice, lingering, jaunty sort of finish. --Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

Then he wrapped the stack of clothing in one of the big picnic napkins, stashed the bundle in the hamper, and selled down with his briar pipe and the book of Greek myths. Nothing like a little fratricide, patricide, matricide, and infanticide to send a fellow right off to sleep. --Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

As it so often does, an impulsive, daring act suddenly - and too late - seemed seriously flawed in its conception and in its inability to be retracted. --Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris