Answers To First Lines

by
Susan Berger
These are the answers to the first lines from the SCBWI Writer’s Day held on Saturday April 10, 2010.

1. The morning after the noted child prodigy Colin Singleton graduated from high school and got dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, he took a bath.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

2. I sold my cell phone to the devil. In my defense it had been a really crappy day

Georgeous by Rachel Vail

(This was an excellent read.)

3. “Where oh where…”wondered Ophie Peeler, looking around her big almost empty bedroom, “did mom

Ophie Out of Oz by Kathleen O’Dell

(I bought this one at the conference because of the title and the first line. It is one of my new favorite books)

4. JUNE 21, 1895 Bombay, India. “Please tell me that’s not going to be part of my birthday dinner this evening.” I am staring into the hissing face of a cobra. A surprisingly pink tongue slithers in and out of a cruel mouth while an Indian man whose eyes are the blue of blindness inclines his head toward my mother and explains in Hindi that cobras make very good eating.

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

(This was Libba’s first book. I already blogged the the first line from Going Bovine. She is a wonderful speaker as well as a wonderful writer.)

5. Miguelito wiggled and jiggled his loose tooth until one night it fell out. “Yay! Mi dente my tooth,” he said and put it under his pillow. Soon Miguelito fell asleep.

The Tooth Fairy Meets El Raton Perez by Rene Colato Lainez Illustrated by Tom Lintern

6. In a House on a hill there’s a wild little child not ready to close her eyes. She burrows in blankets and talks to her toys and listens to lullabies.

Hillside Lullaby by Hope Vestergaard Illustrated by Margie Moore

7. Many places make a home – a heap of twigs, a honeycomb. A castle with a tower or two, an aerie with a birds-eye view.

Castles Caves and Honeycombs by Linda Ashman Illustrated by Lauren Stringer

8. See the piggy, see the puddle, see the piggy in the middle of the muddy little puddle. See her dwaddle, see Her diddle, in the muddy muddy middle. See her waddle, plump and little, in the very merry middle. The Piggy in the Puddle by Charlotte Pomerantz Illustrated by James Marshall

9. In a wee little house in a wee little hole, lived a wee little mouse and a wee little mole.

One Dark Night by Lisa Wheeler Illustrated by Ivan Bated.

(This was Lisa Wheeler’s first book. She has written many wonderful books. I wanted to blog the first line of the first one.)

10. In a tree, in a nest, on a gusty spring morn, a speckled egg cracked, and aa small bird was born.

What’s the Magic Word by Kelly DiPucchio illustrated by Marsha Winborn

(This was Kelly’s first book)

Here are Ten more first lines to titillate your palate (Guess what I’ve been reading lately).

1. Every smiley moon without fail Claire dreamed of her childhood.

2. “Go away!” Brianna yelled. “No! I wanna play too!” Julianne cried.

3. It’s not so bad being dead. People generally tend to ignore you.

4. Do you know what it says on a tube of toothpaste? In small print? You have to read the small print because they never tell you anything scary in large print. Large print is what they want you to see.

5. In the middle of nowhere along a quiet stretch of road the diner dreamt of the hungry dead.

6. The principal crooked his finger at me. “Come to my office,” he said. I almost choked. Please let it be something horrendous I’ve done, I prayed Just don’t let it be…But deep inside I already knew. It was my mom. She’d done it again.

7. When we were little, My best friend Jake and I saw eye to eye. Then I grew and he didn’t.

8. My so-called parents hate my boyfriend Shrimp.

9. When Bee woke up, there was a girl standing in her room. “you are me,” the girl said. Then she was gone.

10. Olivia Kidney’s new home was an apartment building made of maroon and yellow bricks on New York City’s Upper West Side. It was twenty stories high and it contained some of the most awful people you’d ever want to meet.