R.J.Palacio

What’s cool about really little kids is that they don’t say stuff to try to hurt your feelings, even though sometimes they do say stuff that hurts your feelings. But they don’t actually know what they’re saying. Big kids, though: they know what they’re saying. And that is definitely not fun for me.

One of the reasons I grew my hair long last year was that I like how my bangs cover my eyes: it helps me block out the things I don’t want to see.

know all the ins and outs of the middle-school program

It wasn’t my favorite subject on account of the fact that I don’t really have ears. Well, I do, but they don’t exactly look like normal ears.

wanted her to see how mad I was at her. But then I saw her face and just nodded

While she was talking, I noticed Julian staring at me out of the corner of his eye. This is something I see people do a lot with me. They think I don’t know they’re staring, but I can tell from the way their heads are tilted.

What’s the deal with your face? I mean, were you in a fire or something?”
“Julian, that’s so rude!” said Charlotte.
“I’m not being rude,” said Julian

Sometimes when I have the feeling like I’m almost crying, it can turn into an almost-laughing feeling. And that must have been the feeling I was having then, because I smiled, almost like I was going to giggle. The thing is, because of the way my face is, people who don’t know me very well don’t always get that I’m smiling. My mouth doesn’t go up at the corners the way other people’s mouths do. It just goes straight across my face. But somehow Jack Will got that I had smiled at him. And he smiled back

“Don’t we have to pick Via up soon?” I said to Mom.
That was our signal for my telling Mom if I really wanted to leave.

was so nervous that the butterflies in my stomach were more like pigeons flying around my insides.