F is for FAVORITE FIRST LINES

That first line should blow your readers away!

     When I look for a book to read at the library or bookstore, the cover art and title always draw me in first.   Like many others, I'll read the jacket copy and, if it intrigues me, I move on to the first line.
     I've read through many books' first lines, looking at the different ways authors entice readers. When I went to a workshop taught by young adult author Richard Peck four years ago, he admitted to spending several hours each week at a Manhattan bookstore looking at first lines. 'You're only as good as your first line,' he said. So I spend a lot of time writing and rewriting mine.
    Here's a handful of some of my favorites (middle-grade and young adult):
    'My name is India Opal Buloni, and last summer my daddy, the preacher, sent me to the store for a box of macaroni-and-cheese, some white rice, and two tomatoes and I came back with a dog.' - Kate DiCamillo, Because of Winn Dixie, 2000.
    'If your teacher has to die, August isn't a bad time for it.' - Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral, 2004.
    'I come from a family with a lot of dead people.' - Deborah Wiles, Each Little Bird That Sings, 2005.
    'Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water.' - Gennifer Choldenko, Al Capone Does My Shirts, 2004.
    'Walking to school over the snow-muffled cobbles, Karou had no sinister premonitions about the day.' - Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, 2011.

     Tell me one of your favorites! It doesn't have to be from a children's title. Don't forget to leave the title and author's name, too.
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