{"id":19551,"date":"2016-10-21T06:31:11","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T10:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=19551"},"modified":"2016-10-21T06:31:11","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T10:31:11","slug":"best-first-lines-2016-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=19551","title":{"rendered":"Best First Lines, 2016 Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s time to corral the best MG and YA openers in this year’s offerings.
\nWhat makes first lines stand out? Sometimes it’s\u00a0the beauty of the writing. Often, it’s\u00a0the\u00a0satisfying immediate\u00a0revelation of\u00a0character or situation or mood\u2014surprise, dread, suspense, or humor\u2014 that slaps\u00a0readers in the face, in a good way. Sometimes, it’s that elusive thing called “voice” \u2014 a freshness and authority that stands out from less distinctive writing.
\nI’ve gathered the openers\u00a0into slightly arbitrary, “why-I-liked-these” categories.
\nGreat first lines I’ve missed\u00a0\u2014 and with several thousand new books out in 2016, I have missed many \u2014 can be added\u00a0via\u00a0the Comments section below. (Psst! Editors, I’m talking to you. You know which opening lines made your own editorial hearts beat faster.)
\nTHINGS\u00a0YOU DON’T EXPECT<\/strong><\/span>
\nMy underwear is in the apple tree. \u2014The Square Root of Summer<\/strong><\/em> by Harriet Reuter Hapgood (Roaring Brook)
\nCheck this out. This dude named Andrew Dahl holds the world record for blowing up the most balloons . . . with his nose. Yeah. \u2014Ghost<\/em><\/strong> by Jason Reynolds (Atheneum\/Caitlyn Dlouhy)
\nLike I told my friends at school, living in a motel is always exciting\u2014especially during an alligator attack. \u2014Welcome to Wonderland: Home Sweet Motel<\/strong><\/em> by Chris Grabenstein (Random House)
\nWhen Katelyn Ogden blew up in third period pre-calc, the janitor probably figured he’d only have to scrub guts off one whiteboard this year. Makes sense. In the past, kids didn’t randomly explode. \u2014Spontaneous<\/strong><\/em> by Aaron Starmer (Dutton)
\nIt’s hard to smile when you’re having dinner with Nazis. \u2014Projekt 1065<\/strong><\/em> by Alan Gratz (Scholastic)
\nIn my fifteen years, I have stuck my arm in a vat of slithering eels, climbed all the major hills of San Francisco, and tiptoed over the graves of a hundred souls. Today, I will walk on air. \u2014Outrun the Moon<\/strong><\/em> by Stacey Lee (Putnam)
\nIf you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering who you are. I’ll give you three clues. \u2014The Memory Book<\/strong><\/em> by Lara Avery (Poppy\/ Little, Brown)
\nNobody believed me when I said two skunks stole my old trike. But I’d seen those stinkers take it. \u2014The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez<\/strong><\/em> by Robin Yardi (Carolrhoda)
\nThe bullfrog was only half dead, which was perfect. \u2014Gertie’s Leap to Greatness<\/strong><\/em> by Kate Beasley (FSG)
\nOn a clear and sunny morning in September, a twelve-year-old girl named Alice Mayfair stood in the sunshine on the corner of Eighty-Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City and tried to disappear. \u2014The Littlest Bigfoot<\/strong><\/em> by Jennifer Weiner (Aladdin)
\nMy dad died twice. Once when he was thirty-nine, and again four years later when he was twelve. \u2014Time Traveling with a Hamster<\/strong><\/em> by Ross Welford (Schwartz & Wade)
\nLINES THAT\u00a0PAINT A PICTURE<\/span><\/strong>
\nWhen the sea turned to silver and the cold froze the light of the sun, Pinmei knew the Black Tortoise of Winter had arrived with his usual calmness. \u2014When the Sea Turned to Silver<\/strong><\/em> by Grace Lin (Little, Brown)
\nBaltimore was a beautiful, twinkling, probably hostile collection of lights up ahead, half-hidden by two sheltering arms of land and one massive fortress. \u2014The Left-Handed Fate<\/strong><\/em> by Kate Milford (Henry Holt)
\nA pair of rather large, blue-green beetles buzzed north over the River Thames, weaving back and forth over the water’s surface in that haphazard pattern that beetles fly. \u2014The Lost Property Office<\/strong><\/em> by James R. Hannibal (Simon & Schuster)
\nWhen Night looked down, it saw its own eyes staring back at it. \u2014Vassa in the Night<\/strong><\/em> by Sarah Porter (Tor Teen)
\nThe recipe for Korean dumplings on the K-Chow Goddess’s blog has a picture of her dumplings after they’ve been made but before they’ve been cooked, and they look so good you can practically smell them. \u2014Unidentified Suburban Objec<\/strong>t<\/strong> <\/em>by Mike Jung (Scholastic\/Arthur A. Levine)
\nThe boat moved with a nauseous, relentless rhythm, like someone chewing on a rotten tooth. \u2014The Lie Tree<\/strong><\/em> by Frances Hardinge (Abrams\/Amulet)
\nBlue, for example.\u00a0<\/em>\/ Like the color the sun makes the sea. Like the beach bucket he wore as a hat, king of the tidal parade. \u2014This Is the Story of You<\/strong><\/em> by Beth Kephart (Chronicle)
\nI throw open the windows to Do\u00f1a Maria’s front room and Sos\u00faa Bay glitters like butterfly wings tipped in silver. \u2014Dancing in the Rain<\/strong><\/em> by Lynn Joseph (Blouse & Skirt Books)
\nLINES THAT SET THE STAGE<\/strong><\/span>
\nI must write this account, and when I have finished, I will burn it. \u2014The Passion of Dolssa<\/strong><\/em> by Julie Berry (Viking)
\nThe Crown’s Game is an old one, older than the tsardom itself. It began long ago, in the age of Rurik, Prince of Novgorod, when Russia was still a cluster of tribes, wild and lawless and young. \u2014The Crown’s Game<\/strong><\/em> by Evelyn Skye (HarperCollins\/Balzer + Bray)
\nWe must, by law, keep a record of the innocents we kill. And as I see it, they’re all innocents. Even the guilty. \u2014Scythe<\/strong><\/em> by Neal Shusterman (Simon & Schuster)
\nA young queen stands barefoot on a wooden block with her arms outstretched. She has only her scant underclothes and the long, black hair that hangs down her back to fend off the drafts. \u2014Three Dark Crowns<\/strong><\/em> by Kendare Blake (HarperTeen)
\nYou’re still alive in alternate universes, Theo, but I live in the real world, where this morning you’re having an open-casket funeral. \u2014History is All You Left Me<\/strong><\/em> by Adam Silvera (Soho Teen)
\nIt is the night before the boy is to be executed on Gallows Hill. He is sentenced to death on charges of arson and the murder of the sheriff’s little son with a stone. \u2014The Last Execution<\/strong> <\/em>by Jesper Wung-Sung (Atheneum)
\nIn the land of the Spider gods, a girl counted the stars and waited. \u2014Children of the Spider<\/strong> <\/em>by Imam Baksh (Blouse & Skirt Books)
\nIt was their sixth day in hell, otherwise known as the Hayneville jail. Toilets overflowed. Plates of greasy beans rotted on the floor, and the sheriff refused to take any of it away. \u2014Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and His Sacrifice for Civil Rights<\/strong><\/em> by Rich Wallace and Sandra Neil Wallace (Boyds Mills\/Calkins Creek)
\nYes.\u00a0There is a witch in the woods. There has always been a witch. Will you stop your fidgeting for once? My stars! I have never seen such a fidgety child. \u2014<\/em>The Girl Who Drank the Moon<\/strong><\/em> by Kelly Barnhill (Algonquin)
\nThank God for Alexander Graham Bell. If the phone hadn’t started ringing, my crazy-drunk stepfather probably would have finished beating me to death with his belt. \u2014Character, Driven<\/strong><\/em> by David Lubar (Tor Teen)
\nHere’s the situation: We’re lost in the desert somewhere west of Albuquerque, and the car we’ve stolen is nose-first in the dirt with a flat tire. \u2014The Last True Love Story<\/strong><\/em> by Brendan Kiley (McElderry)
\nEveryone will mention the same thing, and if they don’t, when you ask them, they will remember. It was a perfect day. \u2014Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story<\/strong><\/em> by Nora Raleigh Baskin (Atheneum)
\nFIRST LINES\u00a0THAT MAKE YOU\u00a0SMILE<\/strong><\/span>
\nI now have a greater appreciation of toilets. Especially toilets that work. \u2014Escape from Dorkville<\/strong><\/em> by Dean Ammerman (Kabloona)
\nI never thought I’d say this, but nuns and noodles can change your life. \u2014Dara Palmer’s Major Drama<\/strong><\/em> by Emma Shevah (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky)
\nFIRST LINES WITH CHARACTER<\/strong><\/span>
\nI don’t consider myself to be precious, necessarily, but give me air-conditioning or give me death. \u2014The Great American Whatever<\/strong><\/em> by Tim Federle (Simon & Schuster)
\nThe truth is, she was ornery and stubborn, wouldn’t listen to a n y b o d y<\/em>, and selfish beyond selfish, and filthy, caked with mud and dust, and moody: you’d better watch it or she’d knock you flat. \u2014Moo<\/strong> <\/em>by Sharon Creech (Harper)
\nSee, the flow’s the thing. You know, we all got our swagger when we’re on the block. \u2014Riding Chance<\/strong><\/em> by Christine Kendall (Scholastic Press)
\nThere are four of us dudes sitting here right now, and I kick all of their butts when it comes to video games\u2014and I’m not even a dude in the first place. \u2014Girl Mans Up<\/strong><\/em> by M-E Girard (HarperCollins\/Katherine Tegen)
\nI am going to be flogged, and I don’t know why I’m so surprised about it. \u2014The Forgetting<\/strong><\/em> by Sharon Cameron (Scholastic Press)
\nLook here, Mac. I’m gonna give it to you straight: grown-ups lie. \u2014Full of Beans<\/strong><\/em> by Jennifer L. Holm (Random House)
\nI am a girl of definitions, of logic, of black and white. Remember this. \u2014Flawed<\/strong><\/em> by Cecelia Ahern (Feiwel and Friends)
\nListen, I didn’t want to talk about poinsettias in the first place. But if I recite a fact, it is the fact talking, not me. \u2014Mayday<\/strong><\/em> by Karen Harrington (Little, Brown)
\n#460. Poop. Poop is stupid. Stupid poop. Stupid poopid. Is poopidity a word?\u00a0<\/em>Genie stood a few feet away from Samantha’s shabby old doghouse, scribbling a mess of words in his notebook. \u2014As Brave as You<\/strong><\/em> by Jason Reynolds (Atheneum\/Caitlyn Dlouhy)
\n“Vexation, bother, and blast,” I muttered, trying to blink away the sweat that stung my eyes. \u2014Ashes<\/strong><\/em> by Laurie Halse Anderson (Atheneum)
\nLINES THAT LET YOU KNOW YOU HAVEN’T READ THIS BOOK BEFORE<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe fox felt the car slow before the boy did, as he felt everything first. Through the pads of his paws, along his spine, in the sensitive whiskers at his wrists. \u2014Pax<\/strong><\/em> by Sara Pennypacker (HarperCollins\/Balzer + Bray)
\nJust after midnight, Mary Hayes crept into the kitchen of the Buffalo Asylum for Young Ladies and opened a small door on the side of the enormous cast-iron stove. Then she took a deep breath and shoved herself inside. \u2014The Door by the Staircase<\/strong><\/em> by Katherine Marsh (Disney-Hyperion)
\nThe king is ready for war. Louis of France is not yet thirty, and already he is the greatest king in Europe. He loves his subjects. He loves God. And his armies have never been defeated. This war, though, is different. He is not fighting another army. He is not fighting another king. He is fighting three children. And their dog. \u2014The Inquisitor’s Tale<\/strong><\/em> by Adam Gidwitz (Dutton)
\nFIRST LINES I JUST LIKE<\/strong><\/span>
\nMr. McInerney drives way too slow, which is weird for a man who spends his life running into burning buildings. \u2014Burn, Baby, Burn<\/strong><\/em> by Meg Medina (Candlewick)
\nFew things were worth the risk to my life, but the juicy vinefruit was one of them. \u2014The Scourge<\/strong><\/em> by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Scholastic Press)
\nOnce, when I was very small, I bit my mom’s finger. \u2014A Year Without Mom<\/strong><\/em> by Dasha Tolstikova (Groundwood)
\nHistory might be whittled down until all that remains are shining fables of fairy magic and curse-defying kisses. \u2014Kingdom of Ash and Briars<\/strong><\/em> by Hannah West (Holiday House)
\nFIRST LINES THAT ALREADY\u00a0MAKE YOU ROOT\u00a0FOR THE MAIN CHARACTER<\/strong><\/span>
\nNo matter that there are only 130
\nlicensed black pilots in the whole nation.
\nYour goal of being a pilot cannot be grounded.
\n\u2014You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen<\/strong><\/em> by Carole Boston Weatherford (Atheneum)
\n“Remember, you’re not special, Annie,” Mrs. Betsey told the small girl next to her as they stood on the rickety wooden step of the trailer. \u2014Time Stoppers<\/strong><\/em> by Carrie Jones (Bloomsbury)
\nLINES THAT PLOP YOU\u00a0NICELY INTO GENRE<\/strong><\/span>
\nA long time before Bas died, we had a pretend argument about whose fault it was that he’d fallen in love with me. \u2014Girl in the Blue Coat<\/strong> <\/em>by Monica Hesse (Little, Brown)
\nWhenever Poppy Caldwell glanced in a mirror, she saw another girl standing behind her. \u2014The Gathering (Shadow House #1)<\/strong><\/em> by Dan Poblocki (Scholastic Press)
\nFriday. The football field, 8:55 p.m.<\/em> Gerard Cole was in love with the Montague twins, and not for the same dumb reason as everyone else. \u2014We Know It Was You<\/strong><\/em> by Maggie Thrash (Simon Pulse)
\nMy best friend, Brooke, and I have Mrs. Block for fifth grade, except we are trying to pretend we are not best friends so Mrs. Block will put us together when she does the new seating chart, which we hope is extremely soon. \u2014Kate the Great Except When She’s Not<\/strong><\/em> by Suzy Becker (Crown)
\nBet you’d never thought you’d be sitting at the freak table. It’s okay. You get used to it. Trust me. \u2014The Fall of Butterflies<\/strong><\/em> by Andrea Portes (HarperTeen)
\nI should have been born with an owner’s manual. \u2014Draw the Line<\/strong><\/em> by Laurent Linn (McElderry)
\nOnce upon a time, in a kingdom just over the next hill, there lived a fierce warrior hamster named Harriet Hamsterbone. \u2014Hamster Princess: Of Mice and Magic<\/strong><\/em> by Ursula Vernon (Dial)
\nFIRST LINES WHOSE CLEVERNESS SNEAKS UP ON YOU<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe first time my future vanished was July 19, 2034. \u2014On the Edge of Gone<\/strong><\/em> by Corinne Duyvis (Abrams\/Amulet)
\n“Oh my future Queen, you’re late!” \u2014Queen of Hearts\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>by Colleen Oakes (HarperTeen)
\n 
\n 
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given the sheer number of books in this world, it’s impressive that writers continue to craft memorable opening lines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}