Middle Grade Voice Quotes

“Lucas crept around the building to the back parking lot. And there it was, just like he had seen from the roof—a baby lying in a shopping cart. Lucas’s mind went negative. What if the kid was dead? He tried to think if he had ever seen a dead person before. He’d never been to a funeral, and he knew he had never seen a dead baby. And he definitely didn’t want to.
His heart pounded in his chest.
Lucas walked, almost tiptoed, toward the shopping cart. The last of the parking lot lights flickered out, leav-ing only the early morning sun. He moved across the blacktop, making sure not to step on a white line. At this moment he needed all the luck he could muster. As he got closer to the cart, he held his breath and swallowed. Then he grabbed the shopping cart handle and looked over into the basket.
He gasped.”
― Paul Aertker, Brainwashed

“I breath in and out through my mouth to feel the quiet. In. Out. Over and over. Until I fall asleep.”
― Jo Knowles, See You at Harry's

“Hayley is such a snotty-pants. She’s been that way since she started wearing pink lip gloss. Someone should really check the ingredients for that lip gloss because it’s having some serious side effects.”
― Angela Cervantes, Allie, First at Last

“...but freedom is scary.”
― Renata Suerth, New School & Other Stuff

“The longer I stay
in this schoolhouse,
the longer I live in this town,
the more space
I take up
and the less
I feel I belong.”
― Dana VanderLugt, Enemies in the Orchard

“Then the stars turned their attention to the younger children of the family. The ones who hadn’t grown up yet. The stars knew what was coming, who was lurking. They always did. They’d seen it all before, countless times, across vast, green oceans and ethereal night skies. They recognized the tiny, sparkling glow, nearly hidden in the wise old oak tree sprawling above the Roberts-Darlings’ backyard. They recognized the crouched, shadowy figures within its branches. The stars weren’t the only spectators closely observing Lily, Wendy, and Michael.”
― Cynthia Leitich Smith, Sisters of the Neversea: A Muscogee Creek Retelling of Peter Pan – A Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure for Children