Mom! Dad!” Olive hurried up the stairs. “Um – all the power went out on Linden Street. It must have been the snow or something. Everybody’s heat turned off, except ours – so, to be safe, they all came here.

She had other friends – friends that wouldn’t leave her. She had the cats.

She was part of that tree now. And once you are part of something, it can’t really frighten you.

Olive was the type of girl who would rather climb a teetering stack of chairs up to a high shelf than ask for help, perhaps because she had a lot more practice at falling down than she did at talking to people.

It’s hard to impress somebody who’s already the best at everything you try.

I’ve got a simple one: You could cut arm and leg holes in a large box, and wear a plant on your head.

Really? I love being onstage.” I shuffled my feet against the fake grass. “My favorite thing is that feeling when you’re waiting in the wings, in the dark, totally hidden, but you can feel the audience out there, and then you step out and the lights hit you, and you’re blinded for a second, and you could be anywhere, but you know you’re inside this thing that you’re helping to create, and it’s like – it’s like electricity.

She had other friends--friends that wouldn't leave her. She had the cats.

It's been my experience that those people who seem the most 'normal' are in fact the most dangerous.