How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
With no one to talk to, she mumbled to herself, "Buffalo… stink, stank, stuck… liberty… slave… Mississippi Liver." She tried to string these new words with the old ones in sentences, but she had no more success than a blind man threading beads. (4.5)
Even when she's down and out (read: other kids won't play with her), Shirley keeps up trying to fit in. She works on improving her English by talking to herself, even if no one will talk to her and even if she fails. Hopefully, with her better language skills, she can chat up a storm with future pals.
Quote #2
The next day everyone was assigned a poem to recite. Shirley was not. She decided to learn one away. Over and over she played the new record Father had bought for her, imitating each sound until she was certain she could repeat a stanza. Then, locking herself in the bathroom, she practiced before the mirror. (4.24)
Shirley isn't given a poem to recite in class, probably because she doesn't speak a lot of English, but she wants to do so, regardless. She works really hard to memorize exactly what she hears on the record. Determined to fit in with her friends-to-be and her classmates, Shirley will stop at nothing to do what they do.
Quote #3
Her clothes were torn and dirty. Her knees and elbows were bleeding. And she was no closer to becoming a skater than when she had started. Never mind. She couldn't wait for tomorrow. (4.85)
Shirley wants to skate like the other girls at school, so she spends all day teaching herself to do so. She gets banged up and hurt, and doesn't figure much out, but she's still determined to get back up on that horse and do it again so she can become "one of the kids."
Quote #4
Shirley opened her mouth then quickly thought better of speaking, and just shook her head. No matter how long the sentence, on the day of her release Mabel, as surely as tigers devour flesh, would still be around. Around to get revenge if Shirley Temple Wong dropped even the tiniest hint of what happened that afternoon. (5.42)
Mabel intimidates Shirley into not tattling on her at the police station. Despite her inclination to tell her parents and the police the truth, Shirley knows that Mabel might beat her up again, so she zips her lips and adheres to the Kid Code, sticking to her guns on this one, which allows her to eventually make a friend.
Quote #5
Shirley would have preferred to study the problem some more, but was afraid to protest and lose face for her captain. Standing tall, with her feet together, stick on her shoulder, she waited bravely. (5.87)
Shirley isn't too keen on getting up to bat, but this is her first real game of stickball. She's worked so hard to be included, so she doesn't want to risk being shut out. Besides, Mabel has just become her friend, so she doesn't want to endanger that new bond yet. So she grits her teeth and steps to the plate.
Quote #6
Before long. Shirley was infected by a most severe case of Dodger fever. Not even strawberry ice cream could lure her away fro the radio when Red Barber was broadcasting the latest adventure of de Bums. Truly nothing else mattered. (7.11)
Dodger fever hits in the summer of 1947, causing Shirley to become the biggest Dodgers fan Brooklyn had ever seen (maybe). She's determined to hear every pitch, listen to every play, and learn everything she can about her new county's favorite sport.
Quote #7
Throughout the game with the Cubs, they worked. Sorting, cleaning, stacking, drying, saving, discarding, boxing. Throughout Shirley wished she had never heard of Nonnie. She longed for her old drawer bed. The emperor could keep his. (8.38)
Shirley's not the only one in the family who's got a stubborn head on her shoulders—her father drags her into cleaning out the furnace room with the goal of renovating the treasures he's found there. Shirley wants nothing more than to go anywhere else, but her dad keeps with it until he gets what he set out to get.
Quote #8
But done was done. She had to finish what she had started. Just a few steps to the fuse box. She must. She would. She had to. (8.59)
When the lights go out in her building, Shirley takes it upon herself, the house's handy-girl, to fix the problem. She gets in over her head when it's really dark in the furnace room, but, Shirley being Shirley, she won't give up and goes into the scary darkness to the fuse box anyway. Thankfully, Father saves the day.
Quote #9
"I swear unto dea…" Shirley hesitated. Grandmother had always forbidden the saying of the word. "Say it and the gods will be tempted to make it so." But how could she refuse now? Her best friend was waiting. Perhaps, she prayed, the gods only spoke Chinese, never studied English, would not recognize temptation in another language. "… death, that this will be our secret no matter what." (9.54)
Swearing to death is a big no-no according to Shirley's grandma. But her grandmother isn't here, and Shirley has finally gotten what she's worked so hard for—a best friend. She's not about to sacrifice that relationship for one that she didn't have to work for, one that isn't active in her daily life, so she pushes past her fears and swears.
Quote #10
At once, they were giggling. Even Mrs. Rappaport. There was nothing to do but gesture to the right and gesture to the left, exactly as she had practiced, only faster and faster, until finally the stanza was done. (4.28)
Shirley accidentally memorizes not a poem, but a Disney record, to recite for class. Everyone starts to laugh at her, but Shirley doesn't stop and cower in embarrassment. She doesn't even consider that—in fact, "there was nothing to do," no other option, but to keep going until she finished her performance. You go, girl.