You can‘t blend inwhen you were born to stand out.
학교 숙제를 위해 동화작가 Mr. Henshaw에게 질문 편지를 보내고, 오히려 10가지 질문이 담긴 답장을 받으며 계속 쓰게 된 편지와 일기를 통해 부모의 이혼, 트럭운전수 아빠에 대한 그리움, 전학 온 낯선 학교 생활, 도시락 도둑 등 우울한 상황을 담담하게 헤쳐나가는 소년의 한뼘 성장 이야기. 글쓰기의 힘을 보여주는 이야기.
"Bonnie, is there any chance-" Dad began."No," said Mom in a sad, soft voice. "There isn‘t a chance.""Why not?" asked Dad."Too many lonely days and nights not knowing where you were, too much waiting for phone calls you forgot to make because you were whooping it up at some truck stop," said Mom. "Too many boring Saturday nights in some noisy tavern. Too many broken promises. Things like that.""Well..." said Dad and set his mug down. "That‘s what I came to find out, so I might as well be going." He hadn‘t even finished his coffee. He stood up and so did I. Then he gave me a big hug, and for a minute I wanted to hang on to him and never let him go. - P132
I thought of Dad hauling a forty-foot refrigerated trailer full of broccoli over the Sierra and the Rockies and across the plains and all those places in my book of road maps until hegot to Ohio. Personally I would be happy to see all the broccoli in California trucked to Ohio because it‘s not my favorite vegetable, but I didn‘t like to think of Dad alone on that long haul driving all day and most of the night, except when he snatched a few hours‘ sleep in his bunk, and thinking of Mom. - P133
When you answered my questions, you said the way to get to be an author was to write. You underlined it twice. Well, I sure did a lot of writing, and you know what? Now that I think about it, it wasn‘t so bad when it wasn‘t for a book report or a report on some country in South America or anything where I had to look things up in the library. - P31
Every time I try to think up a story, it turns out to be like something someone else has written, usually you. I want to do what you said in your tips and write like me, not like somebody else. I‘ll keep trying because I want to be a Young Author with my story printed (mimeographed). Maybe I can‘t think of a story because I am waiting for Dad to call. I get so lonesome when I am alone at night when Mom is at her nursing class. - P61
"You know," said Mom, "whenever I watch the waves, I always feel that no matter how bad things seem, life will still go on." That was how I felt, too, only I wouldn‘t have known how to say it, so I just said, "yeah." Then we drove home. - P78