How we cite our quotes: (Page Number)
Quote #1
By the time I was fourteen I'd been to six different schools and lived in five states, because although Addie was a great cook, the restaurants she worked for kept going belly-up. I know firsthand about change and adaptability. (7)
It's one thing to know about change and adaptability, but it's another thing to handle them time and time again without falling to pieces or turning into a complete jerk. Hope is the master of plasticity and always seems to come out ahead. You have to wonder if it's just a coincidence that Addie keeps working for failing restaurants. Some people are too restless to stay in one place. Is this Addie? Is she setting herself up for this kind of constant change?
Quote #2
When you move a lot, you have a few things you bring with you that have stood the test of time: I've got my Webster's dictionary, because words are important. […] I've got my eleven scrapbooks of most of the places I've lived, complete with photographs of all my significant comments about people, places, and food. […] Addie says it's easy to go to a new pace and feel like you don't have a history, so you have to lug your history around you or it's too easy to forget. (8)
Addie gives Hope an important tool to cope with change. No matter where you are, you're still you, and you need things to remind you of that. Hope's able to find some consistency inside herself during all the changes in her life. Her "stuff" helps with that.
Quote #3
"New places always help us look at life differently. I will miss you, but won't lose you." (10)
When Hope leaves Brooklyn, her good friend Harrison gives her a "good-bye" present with a note bearing this message. Once again, Hope's encouraged to see the things that won't change, like her friends' love. Harrison's words seem to foreshadow the way Hope feels when she's forced to say good-bye to G.T.