The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy

And I don't know if Batty's gotten over it yet,' said Skye. Mr. Penderwick looked out the window to where Batty was playing vampires with Hound. Hound was on his back, trying to wiggle out of the black towel Batty had tied around his neck. Batty was leaping over Hound's water bowl, shrieking, 'Blood, blood!' 'She looks all right,' he said.

Donit kill her now, just when we've gone to all that trouble to rescue her," said Jeffrey.

The cuter the boy, the mushier your brain.

Am I odd?Is there something wrong with me,like Mrs.Tifton Said?" Skye knelt down on the wet grass and looked straight into Batty's eyes. "No you stupid idiot,there's nothing wrong. with you.

Parents almost always want what's best for their children. They just don't always know what that is.

This is what made a book great, she thought, that you could read it over and over and never get tired of it.

It was all a cottage is supposed to be, small and snug, with a front porch, pink climbing roses, and lots of trees for shade.

quidquid agas prudenter agas et respice finem...Skye was used to hearing this phrase, which Mr. Penderwick translated loosely as look before you leap and please don't do anything crazy.

You have a rare and marvelous gift with words.

It's not right to shoot someone because they're not intelligent.

If there could be anything worse than having a parent die, it would be having a parent who never bothered to meet you.

Skye's always saying exactly the wrong thing to people-it wasn't just special for you.

The moonlight had turned the gardens into a fairyland, magnificent and mysterious.

Her father had been forced to cancel her clarinet lessons after the neighbors complained about the practicing.

Maybe I can drown him in the lily pond.

And depression settled over the kitchen like a wet fog.

She didn't like being stuck indoors because of a bully.

Why does everybody think I argue? I never argue." Skye hesitated. "Or at least, I'm not going to argue as much anymore." "That would be a miracle." Skye chose to pretend she hadn't heard.

I do have an important question, but I can ask it from out here. Are you dry? Of course I'm dry. Why do you ask that? So many daughters have come home wet lately.

He was the least scary adult present, besides being English and therefore fascinating.

She had to defend the people she loved the best.

No, you stupid idiot, there's nothing wrong with you. You're perfect.

Will each of my daughters be delivered to me, one at a time, as from the briny deep?

A whole extra bed without a sister to go along with it!

Jane circled the mansion, passing door after door, all too la-di-da for comfort.

It seemed that the closer the girls got to Mrs. Tifton, the louder Skye squished, like a monster jellyfish with feet.

All was at peace while Batty picked flowers and hummed a song about kangaroos.