How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Every year when Papa renewed his subscription to the New York World, they sent him The World Almanac. While Sweyn and I read books like Black Beauty and Huckleberry Finn, Tom read The World Almanac and the set of encyclopedias in our bookcase. Tom said his great brain had to know everything. (1.32)
Hey, some people are fiction people, and some people are non-fiction people. Here at Shmoop, we love and admire all readers the same—to be honest, we'd even go so far as to say we admire books.
Quote #2
Aunt Bertha shook her head. "I tell you, Tena, that boy could talk his way around anything."
"He gets it from his father," Mamma said as if she was proud of Tom instead of angry with him for marching ten kids across her clean kitchen floor. (1.51-52)
Tom can't be an easy kid to parent, so Mamma has to take the good with the infuriating, and the good is that Tom is going to be okay in life because he has the gift of gab.
Quote #3
It was worth the belt just to have him talk to me and say good-night to me. Before going to sleep that night, I included Tom in my prayers and thanked God for giving me such a big-hearted and wonderful brother. (2.128)
Tom knows a sucker when he sees one—and his little brother, J.D., is most definitely one of them.
Quote #4
"I guess your little brain is too little to understand," Tom said as if I'd stabbed him in the back. "I've taken on a task no other kid in town would touch—teaching Basil English and how to be a good American kid. You saw how happy I made Basil. You saw how happy I made his father and mother. Would you rather I abandon Basil and let the other kids in town make a fool out of him the way they did playing Jackass Leapfrog? I think you owe me an apology, J.D."
I was now the one who felt ashamed. Here my brother was doing a wonderful, kind, and generous thing and I hadn't realized it. (5.83-84)
Oh, poor J.D. Life with Tom is one never-ending game of "Jackass Leapfrog," and he doesn't even realize it. Do you think he'll ever get hip to his brother's ways?
Quote #5
I couldn't help feeling my brother's great brain had planned it this way when he got Basil to fight Sammy. (5.162)
This is one of many times J.D. references Tom's amazing intellect. Sure, things usually work out to Tom's advantage, but it's hard not to admire his cleverness.
Quote #6
"T.D. will probably come out of this a hero to every kid in school," Papa said, and that is just how it turned out. (7.202)
Papa says this following Tom's confession of his role in framing Mr. Standish. While Tom may not get Mr. Standish fired, he gets what he and the rest of the students want: a return to Miss Thatcher's policies. Sweet victory.
Quote #7
"You can play with the set anytime," he said. "And my pa said to thank you for him. My ma said God bless you and she would pray for you. Ain't no way for me to say what I feel inside for you making me so I'm not useless anymore. I guess I'll just have to thank you in my prayers and ask God to bless you too." (8.354)
Aw, this makes us tear up a little. Tom really does deserve our admiration here, when he turns down an agreed upon payment and does something good for the sake of doing something good.