Savvy Quotes
"Water had a way of triggering my brother and making ordinary, everyday weather take a frightening turn for the worse."
"Unlike any normal hurricane, Fish’s birthday storm had started without warning."
"But it was plain that Fish could live nowhere near or nearby or next to or close to or on or around any largish bodies of water."
"That hurricane had been the shortest on record, but to keep the coastal towns safe from our Fish, our family had packed up and moved deep inland."
"Monday through Wednesday, we called our thin stretch of land Kansaska. Thursday through Saturday, we called it Nebransas."
"On Sundays, since that was the Lord’s Day, we called it nothing at all, out of respect for His creating our world without the lines already drawn on its face."
"But I was only two days away from my very own thirteen dripping candles—though my momma’s cakes never lopped to the side or to the middle."
"Momma was perfect. Anything she made was perfect. Everything she did was perfect."
"Girls don’t get the powerful jujubes," said Rocket, "It’s boys who get the earthshaking kinds of savvy."
"I pictured myself blowing out the candles on my cake and fires dying in chimneys across four counties."
"I often reckoned what it would be like for me. I pictured myself blowing out the candles on my cake and fires dying in chimneys across four counties."
"That name had always followed me around like one of Fish’s heavy storm clouds."
"We were all smiling to each other around the kitchen table at the smart way we’d taken care of those beans."
"It’s not that I was against praying—I prayed every night for my savvy to come and be the best savvy ever."
"I thought my little girl deserved something pretty and new to wear for her special birthday."
"That night, I prayed that no one—no one—would come to my birthday party."
"Sometimes it was good to have older brothers."
"I didn’t think I liked being a teenager all that much."
"If only I could stop hearing voices when someone nearby had ink on their skin."
"His touch always made a person feel more braced up inside."
"A savvy’s not a sickness or a disease, it’s an inheritance, like your brown eyes."
"In between, we’re happy and sad, we feel love and we feel fear."
"We just had a name for our talents, and a fairly predictable time of life when our inheritance kicked in."
"No savvy to cause me heartache. No savvy to make me hope, and then leave me useless."
"What did make my family so special? All I knew was that being different ran through our veins."
"It’s like spreading a thin layer of paint over yourself."
"Your savvy will come through too strong, causing some pretty big problems."
"A well-scumbled savvy gives you clarity and control."
"I couldn’t help but think about Poppa lying just as still and lifeless."
"Today I’ve lost both my car and my job. And now it looks like I’ve gone and lost my senses too."
"You’ve tried my patience too far. You may be a decent waitress—but I’ve had it."
"Kids and pools … well, they’re like birds and sky, aren’t they?"
"It wasn’t like any of us would tell her no. We hadn’t even asked permission to be on that bus ourselves."
"It was my job to look after the grown-ups now. It was my job to keep them safe and out of trouble."
"There’ll be none of that business with my sister," said Fish.
"I just thought my little girl deserved something pretty and new to wear for her special birthday," he’d said.
"That’s okay," Bobbi said. "Don’t sweat it. Believe me, take your time."
"I thought you just said you couldn’t read my mind right now," said Bobbi.
"You’ll never can tell when a bad thing might make a good thing happen," she said quietly.