How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
I closed the book and whispered to its spine, "Don't erase the letter, please." (10.43)
Mandy's letters to Ella are the only thing she has from home that make her feel loved (since it's not like her dad cares enough to write, or cares that much at all, really). Writing is a way for people to show affection—so it seems fitting that the people who totally lack affection, like Hattie and Olive, are bad writers.
Quote #5
"I'll write to you. You shall know all my doings. Will you write to me in return?" "Yes, but I'll have no doings, or few. I shall invent, and you'll have to decide what is real." (21.93-94)
Thus Char and Ella's courtship-in-writing begins. Inventive as always, Ella teases him with the promise of spicing up their correspondence with made-up events.
Quote #6
Although weeks passed without an answer from Father, my first letter from Char arrived only ten days after I'd sent mine to him. Then letter followed letter for the first six months of his absence, while I heard nothing from Father, and saw nothing of him either. (24.10)
It's not a good sign when your own flesh and blood can't be bothered to write back to you. But having a prince for a pen pal is a pretty good substitute.