All in First Pages

First Pages: Crimes of Grindewald

First Pages: Crimes of Grindewald

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
First Pages, Dr.Bookworm Book Rec

ā€œScene 1: EXT NEW YORK, AMERICAN MINISTRY OF MAGICā€”1927ā€”NIGHT

AERIAL of New York and MACUSA building.]

Scene 2: INT MACUSA BASEMENT, BARE, BLACK-WALLED ROOM, NIGHT

The long-haired, bearded GRINDEWALD sits motionless, partially fixed to a chair. The air shimmers, charged with spells.

ABERNATHY peers in at GRINDEWALD from the corridor.

A baby chupacabraā€”part lizard, part homunculus, a blood-sucking creature of the Americasā€”is chained to GRINDEWALDā€™S chair. ā€œ

~ The Crimes of Grindewald by J.K. Rowling

First Pages: Awkward

First Pages: Awkward

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
First Pages, Dr.Bookworm Book Rec

ā€œOkay, so when youā€™ve just moved to a new town and are still a total outsiderā€¦

thisā€¦

ā€¦is not the best way to start life at your new school.

Hi! Penelope here. Peppi for short. Itā€™s my first day at Berrybrook Middle School, and I just ripped over my own feet and dropped everything.ā€

~ Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova

First Pages: How to Train Your Dragon

First Pages: How to Train Your Dragon

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
First Pages

ā€œLong ago, on the wild and windy isle of Berk, a smallish Viking with a longish name stood up to his ankles in snow.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, the Hope and Heir to the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans, had been feeling slightly sick ever since he woke up that morning.ā€

~ How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell

First Pages: James and the Giant Peach

First Pages: James and the Giant Peach

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
First Pages

ā€œUntil he was four years old, James Henry Trotter had had a happy life. He lived peacefully with his mother and father in a beautiful house by the sea. There were always plenty of other children for him to play with, and there was the sandy beach for him to fun about on, and the ocean to paddle in. It was the perfect life for a small boy.ā€

~ James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

First Pages: The Little Prince

First Pages: The Little Prince

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
First Pages

ā€œOnce when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.

In the book it said: ā€œBoa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewin it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion.ā€

~First Lines of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

First Pages: Little House in the Big Woods

First Pages: Little House in the Big Woods

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
First Pages

ā€œOnce upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs.

The great, dark trees of the Big Woods stood all around th ehouse, and beyond them were other trees and beyond them were more trees. As far as man could go to the north in a day, or a week, or a whole month, there was nothing but woods. There were no houses. There were no roads. There were no people. There were only trees and the wild animals who had their homes among them.ā€

~ Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

First Pages: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

First Pages: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
First Pages

"Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of the air-raids. They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office. He had no wife and he lived in a very large house with a housekeeper called Mrs. Macready and three servants."

~The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

First Pages: A Wrinkle in Time

First Pages: A Wrinkle in Time

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
First Pages

"It was a dark and stormy night.

In her attic bedroom Margaret Murry, wrapped in an old patchwork quilt, sat on the foot of her bed an watched the trees tossing in the frenzied lashing of the wind. Behind the tress clouds scudded frantically across the sky.  Every few moments the moon ripped through them, creating wraith-like shadows that raced along the ground.

The house shook.

Wrapped in her quilt, Meg shook."

" A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

First Pages: Gift Ideas

First Pages: Gift Ideas

Melanie Tioleco-Cheng
First Pages, Dr.Bookworm Book Rec, Gift Lists

Last year I posted a 12 Must-Have Picture Books for the 12 Days of Christmas.  The list contains  some classics and some newer ones, but they are all picture book 'must-haves' for any young bibliophile (or older ones too).  My friend suggested that I make a list for older kids that other people could reference for great gifts for different age groups. 

Well,  I don't feel exactly qualified to do so.  Why?  Because while I have read thousands of picture books, I am not as well read in early chapter books, middle grade books, or YA books.  So I may curate a list with some input from some other knowledgeable friends, but in the meantime, I thought I'd place all my First Lines novels in one place along with book summaries in case you might want to gift one to a friend or family member this holiday season.

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