Saturday, August 23, 2014

Ten top first lines in children's and teen books

Jon Walter is the author of the novel Close To The Wind.

One of his ten top first lines in children's and teen books, as shared at the Guardian:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards.
This book has a fantastic opening as we follow the knife and the hand that holds it, letting it lead us through a murder scene in search of a missing baby, the last one to be killed. This masterful device puts the gruesome scene at a safe enough distance for us to cope with and means we are rooting for the hero's escape before we've even met him.
Read about the other entries on the list.

The Graveyard Book is among Helen Grant's ten "best books with settings that are strikingly brought to life" and Nevada Barr's 6 favorite books.

Also see: Top ten opening lines of novels in the English language.

--Marshal Zeringue