How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
These days […] Lily found her grandmother's companion unsettling. Could Nan—in the nicest possible way, of course—actually be a bit daffy? (1.16)
Hey, we kind of have to give Lily some credit. If you met an old lady on the street talking to an imaginary friend, you'd probably think she was a little daffy, too. Based on this, it's kind of fun—and relieving—to learn later in the book that Sef actually is real.
Quote #2
"It's the way you toss your hair back," Lily had informed him once, "that long bit that falls over your forehead […] You keep on doing it and doing it, as if you haven't got the strength. It makes you look like one of those nodding toys people keep in the backs of their cars. It makes you look lacking." (4.18)
We've already established that Lily's a bossy pants (see her analysis in the "Characters" section for details), and being a bossy pants, her perceptions of others might as well be reality. In the case of Lonnie, she's fully convinced that unless he breaks the hair-pushing habit (or just gets it cut), no girl will ever be into him. As we know, Lily ends up getting a little surprise.
Quote #3
Sef wasn't imaginary. Sef had been quite real once upon a time, the big girl who'd looked after May back there in the children's home: Sef in her long white nightdress sitting on the edge of May's bed, holding her hand and chasing the bad dreams away. (7.72)
If Lily knew what it was like to grow up with no family and to have your single friend taken away from you, she would probably have an imaginary friend, too. Learning that Sef is a living, breathing human being kind of teaches her this lesson.