Patricia Reilly Giff: Herring

Patricia Reilly Giff is American children's writer. Explore interesting quotes on herring.
Patricia Reilly Giff: 64   quotes 3   likes

“I told her that saying goodbye didn't matter, not a bit. What mattered were all the days you were together before that, all the things you remembered.”

Patricia Reilly Giff book Lily's Crossing

Source: Lily's Crossing

“She wanted to put her head down on her knees and close her eyes. She felt the way she had years ago when she'd tumbled down the stairs and had the wind knocked out of her: a pain in the chest and stomach so strong it was hard to breathe.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 21-29, p. 139

Pain , Way , Strong

“If only she could have held on to that day, held on to that moment forever, grasped it in her fists so it wouldn't escape.
If only.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 11

“Bird.
A good name for her. She wasn't a sparrow or a songbird, though. She stood so straight, and her face was strong.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 27-28

Bird , Strong

“Writing wasn't easy for her. It wasn't like arithmetic, not like a column of numbers to be added or subtracted from the top of the blackboard to the bottom, neat and organized; or science, figuring out the why of things.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 11-20, p. 65

Science

“And the boy was right in back of her, his neck thin as a pencil. "My name is Thomas," he said. "Thomas Neary."
She didn't answer.
"The horse's name is Alfred, in case you want to know." He screwed up his face. "Or maybe Fernando."”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 1-10, p. 21-22

Boy , Horse

“The girl's mouth was chapped, tight and pinched, her skin dry. Mama would say she looked woebegone, but as Bird looked at her eyes, the word she thought of was desperate.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 21-29, p. 127

Girl , Bird

“But what gave him the most satisfaction was going back through the pages to read about his first story appearing in the Saturday Evening Post.
That afternoon he'd bought Bird the largest bag of lemon drops he could find.
"He gives her candy," she had said, remembering too.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Epilogue, p. 164 (closing words); reference to quote from Chapter 11

Bird , Appearance , Reading

“How different everyone looked. How louldly they talked about who was starting work tomorrow, who would start in a week, while Sister Raymond sat at her desk looking serene. Bird felt a lurch in her chest. Of all of them, she though, she might be the one who'd miss school the most.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 21-29, p. 159

School , Bird , Sister

“She didn't want to touch the baby. Didn't want to know if she was dead. But still she reached down, her arms underneath that small body, and pulled it up against her. The body was burning with fever.
But alive. Alive!”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 21-29, p. 131

Baby , Dead

“How could she know what she wanted to do with her life? All these years she thought she'd be a healer like Mama, and now she knew it was never going to happen.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 11-20, p. 64

Life

“He knew what she'd be reading first as she started from the beginning, reading what he'd had to say when he was younger, and then growing older, stories at first about tiny mice who lived in families in back of the wall, and stories about school, and apartments in Greenpoint and Carnasie and Flatbush, elves in Ireland that he'd pictured as Pop had told him about them, and the woman with lace on her sleeves.
She kept turning pages, and then halfway through, she whispered, "Water Street."
Thomas knew she was reading now about a boy who listened at a register, thinking about a family, and a lighthouse, and then she turned the next page and took a breath.
It was the story he really wanted her to see: a story about a girl who though less of herself than everyone else did, who worried about everyone, even when she didn't want to, even when it made her irritable. A girl who was afraid, and who hardly knew it yet, but was on her way to being a healer like her mother, because there'd never be anything else for her, and how lucky they were just to know her.”

Patricia Reilly Giff

Source: Water Street (2006), Chapters 21-29, p. 135-136

School , Family , Way , Girl