How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
In this busy day I hadn't had time to be homesick. But I thought about my brother, Joey. Always before, he'd come down here to Grandma's with me, and stuck up for me. Now he was out west, planting trees, living in a tent. I thought about Joey, and Grandma was thinking about him too. I could tell. (1.129)
It's hard for Mary Alice to be at Grandma Dowdel's house all by herself—especially when she's never visited without her brother, Joey. Mary Alice finds herself more homesick than ever when she considers how her family is spread all over the country now.
Quote #2
Then just above the sighing wind she said, "The trenches are all filled in, but the boys are still dying."
Then I could read her thoughts and I knew what this day meant. Mrs. Abernathy's son could have been my dad. (3.99-100)
Grandma Dowdel isn't just helping out Mrs. Abernathy because she wants to be a good neighbor; in some ways, she's helping Mrs. Abernathy because she knows her son could have been damaged from the war, too. She was just lucky.
Quote #3
But there was one more miracle. I looked up at the tall man behind Grandma, and it was Joey.
Taller and leaner and handsomer. But Joey—changed and the same. And so I was looking my Christmas in the face. I hugged the wind out of him, tangled him in my sheets, nicked his chin with my halo. (4.113-114)
Mary Alice might be a teenager who gets easily embarrassed by her grandmother's strange antics, but she's not too cool to greet her brother when he shows up unexpectedly. His arrival is a Christmas miracle! Plus it shows that for Mary Alice, family is more important than any gift could be.