Jeanne Birdsall · 308 pages
Rating: (15K votes)
“...even a tiny bit of deceit is dishonorable when it's used for selfish or cowardly reasons.
- Mr. Penderwick”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
“Jane,' she said, climbing down from the chair. 'Remember last year when I built that model wind tower for you and you wrote those poems for me?'
And you said you'd never switch homework assignments with me again.'
For good reason. My teacher had a hard time believing I wrote Tra-la the joy of tulips blooming, Ha-ha the thrill of bumblebees zooming. I'm alive and I dance, I'm alive though death is always looming. When I finally convinced her that I had, she asked me if I needed to talk to the school counselor.”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
“The referee told me this league has never had a brawl of that magnitude," said Mr. Penderwick after a long, painful silence. "Of course, at the time I was pretending to be a casual passerby and not a father at all.”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
“I've been going insane reading my students' papers. Apparently several of them think the Hubble Space Telescope is used to search the universe for hubbles."
~ Ithana Aaronson”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
“[The kitchen] was also messy--delightfully so, thought Jane--and it didn't look as though lots of cooking went on there. There was a laptop computer on the counter with duck stickers on it, the spice cabinet was full of Ben's toy trucks, and Jane couldn't spot a cookbook anywhere. This is the kitchen of a Thinker, she decided, and promised herself that she'd never bother with cooking, either.”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
“The sky was a rich cloudless blue, the air still and dry, the maple trees glowing with glorious reds and oranges and yellows, and everywhere on Gardam Street squirrels bustled about with self-importance, burying their nuts in the most unlikely places.”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
“Mere children, ha!" said Jane. "I say we tie up the knave and then discuss his fate."
Since everyone thought this a good idea, Batty and Hound donated Jeffrey's neckties, and soon Bug Man, aka Sock or Spock, aka Norman Birnbaum, was bound hand and foot. Jane, Batty, and Hound then took a few minutes to be Aztec priests calling for blood, until Rosalind quieted them down. Norman was slime, but that was no reason to terrify him.
Then came a long discussion about what they should do next... Jane's suggestion of throwing Norman into their basement so that he could dwell on his sins was rejected outright.”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
“This is truly a sad comedown for a man and a Geiger. Please say you’ll talk some sense into him.”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
“measure, she brushed off Batty, too, and then Hound, and then herself, and only then did she ring the doorbell. When Iantha opened the door, she was holding a red pen and had several more stuck behind her ears and in the pocket of her shirt. “Are we interrupting?” asked Rosalind. She’d taken the little ones away to give Iantha a break, and to make up for all the afternoons Batty spent at her house, causing who knew how much chaos. “Did we come back too soon?” “No, your timing is just right. I keep getting”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
“Penderwick took off his glasses and cleaned them on his sleeve.”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
“Even the rest of the cast would feel sorry for her.”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
“Aunt Claire, I apologize to you too, since you probably had to pretend you weren't my aunt."
"Apology accepted." Aunt Claire smiled, which did much to lighten Skye's heart. "I must say your mad charge at Melissa was impressive. Perhaps you should switch to ice hockey or professional wrestling."
"Claire, please be serious," said Mr. Penderwick.
"I am being serious.”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
“This set off a series of additional questions from Batty, which Iantha gracefully took on, giving Rosalind the chance to slip away unnoticed. She crossed the street to the Geigers’ house, headed round to the back, and knocked on the kitchen door, just as she’d done a thousand times before.”
― Jeanne Birdsall, quote from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
“The State is like a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life. I am that gadfly which God has given the State and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you. You will not easily find another like me.”
― Plato, quote from Apology
“It looked up at them with animal-like intelligence, arching its back as it prepared to leap. “A ghoul!” Sion shouted. The robed skeleton waved its hand, and the doors slammed shut with an ominous boom, locking them in. Then Richter heard something even more disturbing from his Companion. “Fuck my life!”
― Aleron Kong, quote from The Land: Founding
“There's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.”
― Sheryl Sandberg, quote from Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
“If love was compass enough, said Armand quietly, there would be no missing children.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home
“The working people of the Flint area hated this rag, but it was our only daily so you read it. Everyone called it the "Flint Urinal." Editorially, the paper had historically been on the wrong side of every major social and political issue of the twentieth century -- "the wrong side" meaning: whatever side the union workers were on, the Urinal took the opposite position.”
― Michael Moore, quote from Here Comes Trouble
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