hush Family Quotes

Toswiah was my grandmother's name and her mother's name, too. Whenever I told someone my name for the first time, I had to spell it out for them. Toswiah, I'd say slowly—pronouncing it Tos-wee-ah so that it didn't get mispronounced. Then I'd wait for them to go on about how unusual it was. I am tall and narrow like Cameron and Mama. We wear our hair in the same way—pulled back into a braid that stops between our shoulders. Our hair is kinky enough to stay braided without any elastics or barrettes. We all three have the same square jaw and sharp cheekbones. Striking, my mother used to say. (8.12)

"I think I was switched at birth and separated from my real parents," she said. "They're sane and living somewhere in Colorado. They have some other children, including your real sister, who they took home by mistake, instead of me. She's a lot more like you than I am. They go on picnics. My real mother's into line dancing. It embarrasses my real sister and brother, just like it would embarrass me. Your real sister doesn't care, though. It makes my mother happy." (9.7)

When we fight, Mama says It's because you two are too close in age, and Anna gets that look—her eyebrows shooting up and out like a bat's wings, her lips getting thin. Fifteen months is fifteen months, she says. It makes all the difference. (11.1)