How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Line)
Quote #7
"He can't talk either?"
"He just did," I said, getting mad. "You just didn't understand what he said. He said the same thing I just said." (13.9-10)
Frannie's pet peeve is when people say that Sean "can't talk." This is totally untrue, and he does talk all the time. He has long, introspective conversations with his family about the different sides of the highway, even.
Quote #8
Our old mama's returned, I signed behind her back, then headed to the bathroom. (17.29)
For Frannie, sign language isn't just a means of communicating with her deaf big brother. She uses it when he's not around, too—it's a language that she's taken on as her own, just like she's taken on English.
Quote #9
Ms. Johnson says everybody has a story. She said some of us are afraid to tell ours and that's why when it comes time to write something, we say we have writer's block. Ms. Johnson says there's no such thing as writer's block. (20.1)
Writer's block doesn't signify that someone has absolutely nothing to write about in their head—or at least that's what Ms. Johnson says. It just means that someone doesn't want to write about what's inside of them. It's a twist on this classic feeling of stuckness.