Room by Emma Donoghue

★★★★

"In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time...I don't know how persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well...I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter all over the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there's only a little smear or time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit."

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

★★★★

"There are times in our lives when we have to realize our post is precisely what it is, and we cannot change it.  But we can change the story we tell ourselves about it, and by doing that, we can change the future."

"She never managed to find herself in these books no matter how hard she tried, exhuming traits from between the pages and donning them for an hour, a day, a week.  We think in some ways, we have all done this our whole lives, searching for the book that will give us the keys to ourselves, let us into a wholly formed personality as though it were a furnished room to let.  As though we could walk in an look around and say to the grey-haired landlady behind us, 'We'll take it.' "

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

★★★

"I was born on a farm in Kansas, and I guess that's being just as 'spectable and haughty as living in a cave with your tail tied to a rock.  If it isn't, I'll have to stand it, that's all."

Ozma of Oz

★★★

"You see, in this country are a number of youths who do not like to work, and the college is an excellent place for them."

The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum

★★★★

" 'That proves you are unusual,' returned that Scarecrow.  'And I am convinced that the only people worthy of consideration is this world are the unusual ones.  For the common folks are like the leaves of a tree, and live and die unnoticed.' "

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

★★★★

"No matter how dreary and grey our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than any other country, be it ever so beautiful.  There is no place like home."