Alphareader - Danielle Binks

-Melina Marchetta, Quintana of Charyn

Poem by Naomi Shihab Nye, whose father was a Palestinian refugee. From her 2019 book; ‘The Tiny Journalist’

Sometimes the briefest moments capture us, force us to take them in, and demand that we live the rest of our lives in reference to them.

'Autobiography of a face' by Lucy Grealy

Still, despite all this, traveling is the great true love of my life. I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first went to Russia with my saved-up babysitting money, that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby - I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to - I just don't care.

'Eat, Pray, Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert

Everything in the world's got a voice; most people don't hear hard enough is all. Sunrise sounds like slow chords dripping from my guitar this morning. Sad chords, in B-flat.

'Chasing Charlie Duskin' by Cath Crowley

All children, except one, grow up.

'Peter Pan' by J. M. Barrie