Middle Grade Quotes

“She was running out of the room as fast as she could, with the sword raised before her. She called back to her father. "I'll be back soon. I've just got to save the world.”
― Karen Foxlee, Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy

“Flattery was the best medicine, but even I gag on medicine.”
― Jemima Pett, The Traveler in Black and White

“No one is only one thing, my dear.”
― Nikolas Lee, The Iron-Jawed Boy

“I’ve seen middle grade books criticized by adult readers for leaving things for the reader to figure out, for not having perfect happily-ever-after endings. They get knocked for being too depressing, for using too many big words, for featuring parental characters who are too clueless. Girl protagonists are “too angry” or “too self-absorbed.” The issues raised are “too heavy,” the books “too earnest,” “too quiet,” “too hard,” “too far-reaching,” “too strange,” and it is all too too much for the reader.

Except it’s never the readers themselves saying these things.

Our critical discourse in middle grade is sometimes much more about what the reviewer believes children’s books should be rather than about engaging with the book itself and the literature as a whole. When we say a book is “too sad,” “too scary,” “too complicated;” when we demand that endings are perfectly happy and all tied up; when we demand that the themes not be too weighty or the characters not face too much hardship; we are projecting our own biases onto the book, and using them to prescribe what books for this age range can or cannot do. This is nannying, not literary criticism—and it doesn’t give kids much credit.”
― Anne Ursu

“If there's one thing Robert had learned in three weeks at Lovecraft Middle School, it's that nothing was impossible.”
― Charles Gilman, Professor Gargoyle

“Take courage. You do not yet see your own abilities because you have never been tested. You have never demonstrated to yourself or anyone all that you can do. Put your fears aside and trust that you can succeed in the challenges that lie ahead." - King Hercalon IV, Former King of Oomaldee”
― L.R.W. Lee

“I'm not sure what he's saying , but by the way he's checking you out, it looks like you're gonna need a restraining order soon." ~ Treena Mui”
― Sharon Ledwith, The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis

“And it is a strange thing about love... it is that it can take a strength that would seem otherwise insignificant and transform it into a hardly quenchable power.”
― Steven J. Carroll, Worlds Unending

“Don’t worry yourself. It is better that you are cautious and safe than to be accepting and sorry. Trust must be earned. I hope I have now earned yours.”
― S.W. Lothian, The Golden Scarab

“He scanned the page looking for an entry that read, "Help! I'm Almost Thirteen Years Old and I Still Have the Muscles of a Third-Grader!" but apparently Robert's condition was so freakish and rare, the authors of the book didn't even bother to include it.”
― Charles Gilman, The Slither Sisters

“Look how we have made our broken hearts soar.”
― Maria Testa, Becoming Joe DiMaggio

“And, to be true, an enemy's lair is an enemy's lair, no matter how comfortable or fancy it might appear.”
― Steven J. Carroll, A Prince of Earth

“See, I know my life probably sounds glamorous and all, but trust me, it’s not. Living with a bunch of do-gooders comes with some major drawbacks. At the top of the list is the fact that while superheroes are really great at the big things—like thwarting the forces of evil—they really stink at the little things. Like, for example, remembering their kid’s birthday.
- Elliott Harkness, age 12”
― R.L. Ullman, Epic Zero

“The smell of dead fish lingered in the air, and excited flies darted from fish to fish lapping up the decay.”
― S.W. Lothian, The Cursed Nile

“Linc was so amazed at what he saw and heard, “This is sooo cool. I love this place. This looks way better than a day spotting weird people at Walmart.”
― S.W. Lothian, The Fallen Pharaoh

“Life outside is changing our world. We are losing our culture, loosing our roots. How can a living thing grow if its roots are cut?”
― Sherry Shahan, Ice Island

“You know, Dorothy, you can’t let people bring you down so easily or you’ll have your nose in the dirt for the rest of your life. From what I make of it, for every person with a good thought, there are about fifty who’d try to spoil it. We have to guard our good ideas, our happy thoughts, and fight for them. Because if we let those others snuff them out, well, we didn’t after all deserve them.”
― J.M. Lavallee, The Wishing Stone and Other Myths Learned on Gull Cliff Island

“What you do today becomes your tomorrow.”
― Katie Cook, Little Big Benny: The Boy Who Didn't Know He Was the Universe

“When he wasn’t busy chasing unseen mice around the academy, Ion spent hours in the Borean Study, searching through dusty books for anything that had to do with the banshee or the Shroud. But finding this anything proved to be difficult as well, especially when the books you’re reading have everything to do with something, but certainly nothing to do with your anything. And in trying to find this anything, Ion forgot about a very important, specific thing, which would quickly ruin his Wednesday.”
― Nikolas Lee, The Iron-Jawed Boy

“Ah, Mr. Ogg! How I like you!” Mr. Owl cheered. “Always ready to break a neck. Good fellow!”
― M.L. LeGette, The Orphan and the Thief

“He was a dastardly fellow,” the beer mug continued happily. “Truly repugnant. And smelled! Oh, lad, the stench could knock over an ox!”
― M.L. LeGette, The Orphan and the Thief

“Toad must have been very accustomed to traveling this way, balanced on the back rails of a rushing buggy, but Melena was not. She gripped the sides and white-knuckled the rails with her knapsack sandwiched between her knees. Hazel was clamped onto the roof, grinning like an alligator in the sun.
And Toad lounged like a cat.”
― M.L. LeGette, The Orphan and the Thief

“O sweet, sweet Joanna
How torn my heart!
O sweet, sweet Joanna
Our kiss shall never part!

O sweet, sweet Joanna
How thine eyes do mine miss!
O sweet, sweet Joanna
Lushest green now turned to mist!

O sweet, sweet Joanna
How wicked the under-lord king!
O sweet, sweet Joanna
Who stole our cherished ring!”
― M.L. LeGette, The Orphan and the Thief

“You’ve been one busy worm!”
― M.L. LeGette, The Orphan and the Thief

“They were being poisoned.”
― M.L. LeGette, The Orphan and the Thief

“Now, he'd loved money for money's sake. He loved the feel of it, not only in his hands, but also in his heart.”
― Steven J. Carroll, Worlds Unending

“...and now over to our foriegn allegory correspondant, Barv Tweezman." ~The Shielding of Mortimer Townes”
― Montgomery Thompson

“Leaves lift trees.”
― Larry Good, The Land of Walking Through Cake

“A word is a small song.”
― Larry Good, The Land of Walking Through Cake

“Suddenly, she heard a loud bang, a thump and a scream that caused her to jump from the bed. The hair on the back of her neck stood straight up and her body became one big goosebump.”
― Evangeline Duran Fuentes, Cry on Hallow's Eve