Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn Quotes

“If you could change one thing about this world, what would it be?” Mrs. Peabody asked her.

“It would be wars,” Myriah replied seriously. “I would stop them. I would say to the people who were making the wars, ‘Now you stop that. You settle this problem yourselves like grown-ups. Our children want peace.’ That’s what I’d change.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“I felt guilty. I felt guilty because there I was, making a fuss over Jeff’s leaving, when I wouldn’t have minded going right along with him.

He wasn’t the only one who missed Dad. I did, too. And I missed my friend Sunny, and I missed the kids I used to baby-sit for.

Face it. I wanted to go back to California, too, but I wouldn’t leave Mom. No way. We were much too close for that. Besides, I liked Stoneybrook, too. Even in the middle of the freezing cold, snowy, icy winter, I liked Stoneybrook. What I wished was that we hadn’t moved at all. Then I wouldn’t feel so confused.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“Something occurred to me then. It was all about the unfairness of the pageant. Mary Anne was absolutely right. Myriah really should have won, if this pageant was honestly based on people’s talents and character, but it wasn’t.

I was glad that because Myriah had been given such a terrific prize, she wasn’t disappointed about not winning the grand prize. But I was sorry that she had to settle (even happily) for second best.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“Jeff and I may have had our share of fights, and Jeff may have been nearly impossible to live with lately, but he was my brother and I was going to miss him.

How could we let him go? Hadn’t Jeff and I huddled together in my room in California during Mom and Dad’s noisy fights?

Hadn’t I protected him from bullies and nightmares and imaginary monsters? Hadn’t he taught me how to climb ropes when my gym teacher said I was hopeless? How could I grow up the rest of the way without knowing him?”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“Margo,” I said, “What is your greatest wish?”

“Global peace,” she replied immediately.

“Yes, but say it in a nice sentence.”

“My greatest wish,” Margo said, looking rapturous and angelic, “is for global peace. That would be very … nice.”

I only hoped the judge wouldn’t ask her to explain what she meant. Margo didn’t have the vaguest idea what global peace was.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“I told them the whole story, from Ms. Besser’s fateful phone call until right now. “Now” was Jeff’s stuff slowly being packed away into trunks. It was my mom crying in her room at night. It was me crying in my room at night.

It was all of us, even Jeff, feeling like we were going through the divorce again. And because of that, it was Mom clinging to me, as if to say, Don’t you go away, too. Well, I wouldn’t. That was the one thing she’d never have to worry about.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“Oh, that is pathetic,” said Mallory to Jessi.

“Look at them. They’re going to think the only thing that matters in their lives is beauty and poise. They’ll grow up believing they can only be pretty faces, not doctors or lawyers or authors.”

“I am so glad Becca has stage fright,” said Jessi.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“In any pageant, or in any game or contest, there are winners and there are losers. You might be a winner, Myriah, and that would be wonderful. Daddy and Gabbie and I and even Laura would be very proud of you, but you might be a loser, too.

There are going to be lots more losers than winners and I want you to know that we’ll be proud of you if you lose. We’ll be proud of you for having the courage to be in the pageant, and for the work and rehearsing you’ll do.”

“I know,” said Myriah, giving her mother a hug. “Thank you.”

“One more thing,” said her mother. “I think you should know that for some girls, this pageant won’t be just fun and games. I hope it’ll be fun for you, but for others it will be work. They’ll take it very seriously.

You might be competing against girls who have been winners in other pageants, or who have won beauty contests or talent contests. They’ll know how pageants work. And they might, just might, not be very friendly. I want you to understand what you’re getting into, that’s all. Okay?”

“Okay,” said Myriah.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“Mallory clapped her hand to her forehead and moaned, “Oh, no. My sisters. My baby sisters. They’ll be contaminated. They’ll be brainwashed. If I become the sister of Little Miss Stoneybrook, I will absolutely die!”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“Kristy sat up very straight in the director’s chair. She adjusted her visor.

“As you know,” she said, “today we are going to induct two new members into the club.”

Jessi and Mal grinned at each other, but I thought, "Induct?" Who’s Kristy kidding?

First she comes up with this fancy word, which just means to introduce them into the club officially.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“she”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“together. “Thank you for being such polite”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“I put my head in my hands. Neither Claire nor Margo was going to win.

“Hey,” said Claudia, “don’t feel too bad. At least your contestants stuck it out.”

“I wanted one of them to win something, though. I wanted to prove how good I could be with kids.”

“You did!?” exclaimed Kristy. “So did I. I guess we all did. Maybe we learned something, though. Even the best baby-sitter can’t change a kid.”

“Yeah,” agreed Mary Anne. “And I’d rather have a kid like any one of ours than like Sabrina Bouvier.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“Sabrina looked as if she might have been born on a stage. She smiled glamorously at the audience and the judges, curtsied prettily, and shook Mrs. Peabody’s hand smoothly.

Okay, I thought, after all the little girls had been introduced. So Sabrina was gracious and sophisticated. So what? She might not have any talent at all. Or maybe she’d be really, really stupid and not able to answer her question.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“Charlotte and the Pikes stared after Sabrina as Mrs. Bouvier whisked her away.

“Do you know what that was?” Claudia whispered to me. “A pageant-head, that’s what. A poor kid who gets roped into any beauty contest or pageant that comes along. Her whole life is one big smile.”

“She’s not that pretty,” I pointed out.

“And maybe not very talented,” added Claudia. “But she knows pageants, or her mother does, and she knows what the judges like.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“A new voice spoke up. “I can tell you how to get rid of the Pageant Jitters forever,” it said, sounding as if it were reciting something from a TV commercial. The voice belonged to the girl with the makeup.

“You can?” said Claire, Margo, and Charlotte in unison.

“Certainly. It would be my pleasure.”

I glanced at Claudia. Who was this kid? She was about Margo’s age, but she looked and acted 25.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“No doubt about it, Myriah really was good. Her talent was true talent, not just some little act thrown together for the pageant.

And there was Karen, looking awfully pretty. Kristy was nervously brushing her hair.

And there was Charlotte, simply looking scared to death. She and Claudia were standing around awkwardly, almost as if they didn’t even want to be there.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“Let’s see,” I said. “Claire, you’re near the beginning. You’ll always go on stage right after Myriah. And Margo, you’re sort of near the middle. You’ll always go on right after Sabrina Bouvier.”

“Right after who?” exclaimed Margo.

“Shh,” I said. “A girl named Sabrina Bouvier.”

Margo looked frantically around the backstage area. Her eyes traveled over Myriah, Charlotte, Karen, and several other contestants, and landed on the girl who was wearing the makeup (and plenty of it, I might add).

“That’s her,” said Margo fiercely. “I just bet that’s her. Who else would have a name like Sabrina Bouvier?”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“It hadn’t really occurred to me that the Pike girls would be competing against each other. What if one of them did win the pageant? The other would lose not just to strangers or even friends, but to her own sister. How awful!

On the other hand, I was beginning to think that there wasn’t much chance that either girl would win, not with banana-peeling and rude Popeye songs.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“I can sing,” said Margo. (Claire was sniffling and rubbing her knee.)

“We sing all the time in music class at school. Listen to this. It’s the song about the smart reindeer: Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear.”

“Margo,” I said when she had finished. I paused to think.

Margo was giggling away at her reindeer joke, but there was a little problem. She couldn’t carry a tune. She might have been singing any song. Any song at all.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“I was numb. Once, I had an infected finger. A splinter had gone in and I couldn’t get it out.

My father said he would try to get it out for me. Before he started “operating”, he held an ice cube on my finger to numb it.

That’s how I felt now. As if someone had applied a giant ice cube to my body and to my brain, as well.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“I thought for a moment. I did want the job. It sounded like fun, and I needed some fun. I didn’t want to cause any more problems among us sitters, though.

On the other hand, this might be my chance to prove just how good I was with kids. Certainly as good as Claudia. Imagine if Claire or Margo won the contest and became Little Miss Stoneybrook!

Plus, I wouldn’t mind irking Kristy just a little bit to get back at her for the induction ceremony.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“A pageant to choose Little Miss Stoneybrook was going to be held for girls ages five to eight. The winner would go on to a county pageant. The winner of the county pageant could compete for the Little Miss Connecticut crown.

From there, she could go on to try for Little Miss America and then Little Miss World. The Little Miss World crown seemed like kind of a long shot to me.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“I knew he needed to get out of Connecticut, but couldn’t he see what he was doing to our family? It was bad enough that Mom and Dad were divorced.

Still, Mom and Jeff and I managed to seem like a little family. If Jeff left, it would be hard to think of Mom and me as a family.

I love my mom, but I knew that the two of us were going to feel like the ends of a loaf of bread, with all the other slices gone. I wanted at least one more slice. And Mom was going to let it go.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn

“I wished Charlotte had asked for me. It made me feel like I wasn’t a good sitter or something, even though I knew that wasn’t really true.”
― Ann M. Martin, Little Miss Stoneybrook... and Dawn