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

Appositive sentences stalked by my students

Laura the Beautiful, my true friend, makes me feel great. -- by Andrea Vela

Aunt Polly - Tom's Aunt Polly, she is - and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before. -- From The Aventures of Huckleberry Finn --submitted by Asne

Miss Small, the gym teacher, is teaching A.J., Andrea, and the gang to juggle scarves, balance feathers, and do the Chicken Dance. -- My Weird School, Miss Small is Off the Wall -- submitted by Sooji

And she did not want to sit next to Frank Pearl, who ate paste, in class. --Judy Moody --submitted by Laura

Daniella, the soccer girl who rocks and rolls, went to her house. --by Mabel Garcia

Fudge, my annoying younger brother, just walked into the room. -- Fudge-a-mania -- submitted by Claire Griffiths

Samantha and I, the new students of the class, got lost on campus. -- Daniella

Jack, the gold-greedy pirate, yielded.-- Pirates Past Noon -- submitted by Daniel

Carly, who's nice, is my classmate. -- by Ricky

Mike, the horrible kid, was at the party.-- by Carlos Javier

Sentences from my recent reading

From Sister Spider Knows All by Adrian Fogelin -- a well-written story about an unusual family that has a booth at a flea market:

Mimi says our family may not be a greetingcard, but the three of us together - John Martin, her, and me - are family enough for anyone.

Just after the sun goes down it seems as if the light comes from inside of things.

From Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam, Jr. -- this is a re-read for me. It's a memoir of a boy, a family, a group of friends, and a town:

Great Lead: Until I began to build and launch rockets, I didn't know my hometown was at war with itself over its children and that my parents were locked in a kind of bloodless combat over how my brother and I would live our lives. I didn't know that if a girl broke your heart, another girl, virtuous at least in spirit, could mend it on the same night. And I didn't know that the enthalpy decrease in a converging passage could be transformed into jet kinetic energy if a divergent passage was added. The other boys discovered their own truths when we buil our rockets, but those were mine.

I got on my bicycle in the morning with a big white canvas bag strapped over my shoulder and delivered the Bluefield Daily Telegraph down this valley, pedaling past the Coalwood School and the rows of houses that were set along a little creek and up on the sides of the facing mountains.

It was a decision that I believed she often regretted, but still would not have changed.

My mother took no pity on me and scrubbed the coal dirt off me with a stiff brush and Lava soap.

He was wearing his green and white football letter jacket and also a nnew button-down pink andblack shirt (collar turned up).

"Sonny's small," Coach Tom Morgan told my Uncle Clarence at practice one day,"but he makes up for it by being slow."

"There are two things every woman really wants: one, she wants to know that a man really loves her, and two, that he isn't going to stop. . . . "

The night air was so clearn that when I looked up, the stars seemed to form a glowing blue-white bridge that arched from mountain to mountain.

All I've done is give you a book. You have to have the courage to learn what's inside it. - Miss Freida Joy Riley

Miscellaneous Sentences

Everyone who was present that day could sense that words had a mysterious magical power, that they could reach the heart and make the oldest things new again, over and over, if only one used them with feeling and passion. --The Legend of the Wandering King by Laura Gallego Garcia

I have a crew cut, yes a crew cut, sallow skin, and the kind of mouth that puckers when I breathe. -- Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going

I want to say it with a snarl, but when your cheeks are puffy you don't snarl, you huff. -- Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going

The moment already makes the Awkward Hall of Fame, but as per my life, it has to get worse. -- Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going

I am the Rocky Balboa of obese drummers.-- Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going

She wasn't afraid to live life; I wasn't afraid to take notes. -- The Isabel Factor by Gayle Friesen

She was pretty, popular, poised, polite, occasionally persnickety but never around parents. (And political.) Sorry. Runaway alliteration again. -- The Isabel Factor by Gayle Friesen