Quotes from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street

“...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

About the author

Popular quotes

“The truth isn't going to bend itself to suit you.”
― Malorie Blackman, quote from Boys Don't Cry

“Glaring coldly at us, the small crowd got out of their hard back chairs and zombied down the hall until the closing clanks of the big iron doors began. The expressionless men that wore drooling towels like bibs walked even slower but the burly attendants hurried them with a stinging crack of the wide leather belts, allowing them no dignity whatsoever. Thorazine, Prolixion, Haldol and any other psychotropic drug on the market maintained and assured obedience of the strictest kind, so it was fed like candy. No humanity, but I almost forgot. We are not human. Clank!”
― Daniel Keyes, quote from The Minds of Billy Milligan

“But there was a more recent author and public figure whose work spoke to the core of a new set of issues I was struggling with: the Bronx's own Colin Powell. His book, My American Journey, helped me harmonize my understanding of America's history and my aspiration to serve her in uniform. In his autobiography he talked about going to the Woolworth's in Columbus, Georgia, and being able to shop but not eat there. He talked about how black GIs during World War II had more freedoms when stationed in Germany than back in the country they fought for. But he embraced the progress this nation made and the military's role in helping that change to come about. Colin Powell could have been justifiably angry, but he wasn't. He was thankful. I read and reread one section in particular:

The Army was living the democratic ideal ahead of the rest of America. Beginning in the fifties, less discrimination, a truer merit system, and leveler playing fields existed inside the gates of our military posts more than in any Southern city hall or Northern corporation. The Army, therefore, made it easier for me to love my country, with all its flaws, and to serve her with all of my heart." -The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (p. 131)”
― Wes Moore, quote from The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“You know...give peace a chance, not shoot people for peace. All we need is love. I believe it. it's damned hard but I absolutely believe it. We're not the first to say 'Imagine no countries' or 'Give peace a chance' but we're carrying that torch, like the Olympic torch, passing it from hand to hand, to each other, to each country, to each generation. That's our job...I've never claimed divinity. I've never claimed purity of soul. I've never claimed to have the answer to life. I can only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can, but only as honestly as I can, no more, no less.

"I used to think that the world was doing it to me and that the world owed me something, and that either the conservatives or the socialists or the fascists or the communists or the Christians or the Jews were doing something to me, and when you're a teenybopper that's what you think. I'm 40 now. I don't think that anymore, 'cause I found out it doesn't fucking work. The thing goes on anyway and all you're doing is jacking off and screaming about what your mommy or daddy or society did...I have found out personally...that I am responsible for it as well as them. I am part of them.”
― Philip Norman, quote from John Lennon: The Life

“If nothing else, school teaches that there is an answer to every question; only in the real world do young people discover that many aspects of life are uncertain, mysterious, and even unknowable. If you have a chance to play in nature, if you are sprayed by a beetle, if the color of a butterfly's wing comes off on your fingers, if you watch a caterpillar spin its cocoon-- you come away with a sense of mystery and uncertainty. The more you watch, the more mysterious the natural world becomes, and the more you realize how little you know. Along with its beauty, you may also come to experience its fecundity, its wastefulness, aggressiveness, ruthlessness, parasitism, and its violence. These qualities are not well-conveyed in textbooks.”
― Michael Crichton, quote from Micro

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.