Why did I start this off in Roman numerals? I’m gonna be on real shaky ground after thirty (XXX). Fortunately there is a ways to go before then.
Once again, these quotes fall into a few natural buckets: funny/clever/sharp observations, poetic language, and theme. Quests, grief, magic…and snails’ teeth.
- That’s the thing with quests, she realized. You had to get back to where you started. And then you had to keep living. (Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson)
- “You’re going to be sad forever, Lucy. But that’s not all you’ll be. There’s room for much more.” (Candle Island by Lauren Wolk)
- “Everyone has to learn how to do everything at some point. You don’t get extra points for learning early.” (The Things We Miss by Leah Stecher)

- “One day there won’t be any difference between you, except that you’ll have forgotten all the hurtful things you said to her, and she won’t. She will remember.” (The Story of Gumluck and the Heroes by Adam Rex)
- “What is the happening?!” (We Are the Wibbly by Sarah Tagholm)
- The enchantment is only there because everyone believes, together. (Kaya Morgan’s Crowning Achievement by Jill Tew)
- One doesn’t need magic if one knows enough stories. (Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett)

- “Did you ever notice that everyone thinks their own life is normal, but each person’s life is so different?” (Run Away With Me by Brian Selznick)
- Bereavement….happens to everyone. But you feel it alone. (H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald)
- It seemed far more sensible to belong to a species that had evolved natural tooth replacement than to belong to one that had developed the dental profession. (The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey)