Melissa Carpenter

“And here in this room, I re-experience the memories again and again it is how wisdom comes and how we shape our future.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“If no one saw them, no one could help them. And maybe the world needed to see what was really happening here.”
― Alan Gratz, Refugee

“In some ways, I think that part of what of what I'm trying to accomplish, whether Amá really understands it or not, is to live for her Apá, and Olga. It's not that I'm living life for them, exactly, but I have so many choices they've never had. And I feel like I can do so much with what I've been given. What a waste their journey would be if I just settled for a dull mediocre life.”
― Erika L. Sánchez, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

“But something happens when the story you tell yourself turns out not to be your story at all. You have to figure out what to replace it with. Something needs to grow in the space left behind. [p. 280]”
― Julie Buxbaum, Hope and Other Punchlines