Significant Quotes

#1

      Fifth grade started a few weeks ago, and a couple of cool things have happened. Well, I didn't get a gadget that makes Garfield-like speech bubbles over my head, but I did get an electric wheelchair, and our school began something called "inclusion classes." I thought that was funny. I've never been included in anything. But these classes are supposed to give kids like me a chance to interact with what everybody else calls the "normal" students. What's normal? Duh!
(page 90)

#2

      "How do we know Melody doesn't have answers stored in her machine? Us normal people aren't allowed to use computers."
      "Why are you so worried about Melody?" Rose answers before Mr. D has a chance to. "Are you scared she'll get a higher score than you?"
(page 180)

#3

      Why didn't they call me?
      Why didn't they tell me about breakfast?
      Why can't I be like everybody else?
      I finally cry into my pillow. Butterscotch nudges me with her nose, but I ignore her.
      They left me on purpose! How could they do that? They left me on purpose!
(page 262)

#4

      From the time I was really little - maybe just a few months old - words were like sweet, liquid gifts, and I drank them like lemonade. I could almost taste them. They made my jumbled thoughts and feelings have substance. My parents have always blanketed me with conversation. They chattered and babbled. They verbalized and vocalized. My father sang to me. My mother whispered her strength into my ear.
      Every word my parents spoke to me or about me I absorbed and kept and remembered. All of them.
      I have no idea how I untangled the complicated process of words and thought, but it happened quickly and naturally. By the time I was two, all my memories had words, and all my words had meanings.
      But only in my head.
      I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old. . . .
(page 295)