Kimberly Brubaker Bradley Quotes

Somehow Christmas was making me feel jumpy inside. All this talk about being together and being happy and celebrating - it felt threatening. Like I shouldn't be part of it. Like I wasn't allowed. And Susan wanted me to be happy, which was scarier still.

It was horrible how the hardest things could be the truth.

You can know things all you like, and someday you might believe them.

Jamie sings like a squirrel.

After that, with help from Jamie, I left Susan little notes every day. Susan is a big frog. (That one made Jamie giggle.)

I had so much. I felt so sad.

And even if it felt like Mam hated me, she had to love me, didn't she? She had to love me, because she was my mam, and Susan was just somebody who got stuck taking care of Jamie and me because of the war.

Sourpuss," she said, laughing. "Would it kill you to be grateful?" Maybe. Who knew?

We emerged onto the ruined street, where gaps showed in the rows of buildings like missing teeth

People used to draw dragons on the edges of old maps. When the world hadn't been fully explored, mapmakers imagined dragons living at the far ends.

I stared at the paper. I said, "This isn't reading. This is drawing." "Writing," she corrected. "It's like buttons and hems. You've got to learn those before you can sew on the machine. You've got to know your letters before you can read." I supposed so, but it was boring. When I said so she got up again and wrote something along the bottom of the paper. "What's that?" I asked. "'Ada is a curmudgeon,'" she replied. "Ada is a curmudgeon," I copied at the end of my alphabet. It pleased me. After

You can know all the things you like, but that does not mean you believe them.

But what do I do with them?" Miss Smith said "I've never been around children." "Feed them, bathe them, make sure they get plenty of sleep," the doctor said. "They're no more diffi cult than puppies, really." He grinned

You're perfectly capable of learning. You mustn't listen to people who don't know you. Listen to what you know, yourself.

I didn't know what to do. Susan was temporary. My foot was permanent.

I kept traveling down the road. And everywhere it was the same. What was my name, who were my people? What was I supposed to say? That my father is the president, and my mother is his slave?

I don't know what to say," she said, after a pause. "I don't want to tell you a lie, and I don't know the truth."
It was maybe the most honest thing anyone had ever said to me.

What's right and what's permitted are sometimes different things.

Victory,' she said, 'means peace.