Isla Marie

“Isn’t one of those Labors going down to hell?”

“There and back,” said Lieutenant Colonel Hupfer. “As I indicated to Ms. de la Peña, it’s a tough world, Beal.”

He leaned down over me and whispered, so quietly that no one else could hear, “But I think you already know that.”
― Gary D. Schmidt, The Labors of Hercules Beal

“How strange to grow up like that, a different person than what one thought.”
― Christina Baehr, Drake Hall

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” And that’s when I started crying. Crying like a kindergarten kid in front of everyone. Crying because Joseph wasn’t just my friend. I had his back. And he had mine. That’s what greater love is.”
― Gary D. Schmidt, Orbiting Jupiter

“Unlike her, I had the great blessing of a place to go where I would not be judged by the state of my gloves, nor what missteps I had taken.”
― Christina Baehr, Castle of the Winds