Share an example of vivid imagery written by an author from your free reading. Be sure to use an exact quotation, with quotation marks, and give credit to the author by writing his or her name after the quote. Please see the first comment for a model.
50 comments:
"...a twelve-year-old boy sat up in bed, listening. There was a sound coming from outside, growing ever louder. It was a huge, heavy rush, suggesting immensity, a great parting of air. It was coming from directly above the house. The boy swung his legs off his bed, raced down the stairs, slapped open the back door, and loped onto the grass. The yard was otherworldly, smothered in unnatural darkness, shivering with sound. The boy stood on the lawn beside his older brother, head thrown back, spellbound.
The sky had disappeared. An object that he could see only in silhouette, reaching across a massive arc of space, was suspended low in the air over the house. It was longer than two and a half football fields and as tall as a city. It was putting out the stars...
Standing under the airship, his feet bare in the grass, he was transfixed. It was, he would say, "fearfully beautiful." He could feel the rumble of the craft's engines tilling the air but couldn't make out the silver skin, the sweeping ribs, the finned tail. He could see only the blackness of the space it inhabited. It was not a great presence but a great absence, a geometric ocean of darkness."
-Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken
"He did not speak much, wore buckskins that smelled of wood smoke and deer blood,and walked in moccasins so worn his feet could nearly be seen through them."
Gary Paulsen The Rifle
"All trace of newness was longs inch gone forms these things. The dust of distance was beaten into them. They were woe and stained and several neat patches showed on the shirt. Yet a kind of magnificence remained and with it a hint of men and manners alien to my limited boy's experience."
Jack Schaefer, Shane
Shane
Laura G says
"The six or seven or ten of us walked/ wheeled in, grazed at a decrepit selection of cookies and lemonade, sat down in a circle of trust"
John Green The Fault In our Stars
"I looked pretty dead- my hands and feet ballooned; my skin cracked; my lips were perpetually blue
Page 5: "I could smell English Leather shaving lotion and tobacco, I wondered foolishly if I would suffocate before they did anything."
Page 56: "I lay there weakly,breathing in air and spitting out water. The wind blasted through my soaked sweatshirt and dripping hair. My teeth chattered uneasingly I couldn't stop them."
S. E. Hinton, "The Outsiders"
-Grace Hedlund
Emily Grady
"Despite the light from the crecent moon, the stars shine like bits of precious ice in the clear black sky."
-Polly Holyoke the Neptune project
<3"....The numbers begin to scroll up on the screen, like little white soldiers on a black battle field waiting for me to mow them down. I touch each one and begin to sort them out, pulling them out, putting them aside into different boxes. The tapping of my fingers makes a low, soft sound, almost as silent as snow falling."<3 -Matched by Ally Condie
-JULIA PILON
Kenzie Mannone- A carton of Dannon blueberry yogurt was on the floor, gooey contents spilled onto the ratty carpet. The TV was on, with no picture, just static.
~Michael Grant, "Gone"
Nick Stansfield
"The night air turned sharp, almost acrid-smelling." Page 27
"A sparrow fluttered past and landed on a barren crab apple tree. A lawn mower rumbled to life in the distance."
Page 143
Sara Shepard Unbelievable
Abby M-L "the house fronts looked black enough and the windows blacker, contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs, and with the dirtier snow upon the ground which last deposit had been plowed up in deep furrows by the heavy wheels of carts and wagons, furrows that crossed and recrossed each other hundreds of times where the great streets branched off, and made intricate channels ,hard to trace, in the thick yellow mud and icy water. The sky was gloomy, and the shorter streets were choked up with a dingy mist, half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended in a shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in Great Britain had , by one consent, caught fire, and were blazing away to their dear hearts' content. There was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town, and yet there was an air of cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air an brightest summer sun might have endeavored to diffuse in vain." Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol
"She was brown with the dust and draped with the cobwebs which had come from the walls of her hiding-place. her face, too, was streaked with grime, and at the best she could never have been handsome, for she had the exact physical characteristics which Holmes had divined, in addition, a long and obstinate chin. What with her natural blindness, and what with the change from dark to light, she stood as one dazed, blinking about her to see where and who we were. And yet, in spite of all these disadvantages, there was a certain nobility in the woman's bearing -- a gallantry in the defiant chin and in the upraised head, which compelled something of respect and admiration."
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes.
Logan O'Connell.
"Johnny was smaller than the rest, with a slight build. He had big black eyes in a dark tanned face; his hair was jet-black and heavily greased and combed to the side, but it was so long that it feel in shaggy bangs across his forehead. He had a nervous, suspicious look in his eyes." Outsiders S.E. Hinton
Luci Rawlinson
"It was lit by silver lamps that swung from the boughs of trees, and it fell into a basin of silver, from which a white stream flowed. Upon the south side of the lawn there stood the mightiest of all trees;its great smooth bole gleamed like grey silk, and up it towered, until its first branches, far above, opened their first limbs under shadowy clouds of leaves"
J.R.R Tolkien, Lord of the Rings
Tori Snape
“Barry parked the people-carrier outside the club restaurant, the Birdie, and stood for a moment beside the car, while Mary reapplied her lipstick. The cool evening air was pleasant on his face… His head throbbed worse than ever. Mary switched off the mirror light and closed the passenger side door. Barry pressed the auto-lock on the key-ring in his hand; his wife’s high heels clacked on the tarmac, the car’s locking system beeped, and Barry wondered whether his nausea might abate once he had eaten.
Then pain such as he had never experienced sliced through his brain like a demolition ball. He barely noticed the smarting of his knees as they smacked onto the cold tarmac; his skull was awash with fire and blood; the agony was excruciating beyond endurance, except that endure it he must, for oblivion was still a minute away.”
J.K. Rowling, The Casual Vacancy
Breda
"His mouth twisted freakishly when he talked, moving too much over every word. And his voice didn't sound like Felix's; it was high and mocking, like a clown's. He walked strangely, too, lurching from ide to side as if he were tied to puppet strings and being manipulated by someone high above." Madeline Roux, Asylum
-Daphne Sroka
"Baz's shoulder was nearly touching his own, and Simon could see every tiny bump and shadow on Baz's admittedly clear skin. Every line of his lips, every flare of blue in his light grey eyes."
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
~Rose Beardmore
"The night air filled their lungs, fresh and clean and cool; their eyes took in a canopy of dazzling stars, and the shine of water somewhere below, and here and there groves of the great trees, as high as castles, dotting the wide savanna."
By: Philip Paullman, commented by Alex Orsula.
"The clock lay on the sand, broken again, and burst apart. This time the glass was completely shattered, the springs were uncoiled in all directions, the escapement was bent and the balance wheel broken. The spidery hands were snapped in two.
And then to his horror, Eddy saw a little wave curl around a heap of scattered gears and pull them away."
-Jane Langton
Justin Boussom
"I put the ball on the floor once, then stepped around with my left foot, drove to the basket and lifted off my feet. I was in a place I wasn't supposed to be, above the rim."
Slam, Walter Dean Myers
Travis Chesbrough
"The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit." -uglies
-ALLY JOSEPH
A whistle blew. The infantry burst into fire. It was hard, in the smoke and confusion, to see what was happening, but there- there was the first dog, already near the side. Stanley searched the flurry of dogs tearing home. No bones.
-Cameron M
"The door burst open, splintered wood flying through the air like darts."
-James Patterson
Maximum Ride
(Frank Butler)
"She has smooth blond hair and bright blue eyes. Her hands are delicate and soft, not all like the farm wives I know. She's perfect in every way. She looks like a movie star." - Natale Ghent, No Small Thing
~Jessica Morse
"Our neighbor lady back home, Mrs. Perkins, had a big white rooster called Otis, and he crowed so loud, it was like he believed he was the one responsible for waking up the sun each day. In fact, he didn't just crow in the morning but whenever the mood struck him all day long." Prairie Evers by Ellen Airgood
~Kaitlyn Weko
"Dad turned slowly around. His eyes were red and puffy. I think he had been crying. His hands and shirt were greasy, but when he hugged me, I didn't flinch."
"Every time I was with him now, my skin tickled and my brain buzzed and my blood romped around as if it were percolating."
~Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech.
Maddy Morgan
"She could see him now, his funny big nose and high forehead. The handmade shoes he wore, and a jacket made out of dead animal skins sewn together. David had grown up out in the Smoke, had never set foot in a city his whole life. His face was ugy from top to bottom, tanned imperfectly by the sun, with a scar that ran through his eyebrow...but remembering him sparked somthing inside Tally."
Scott Westerfeld, Pretties
-Dominique Dupuis
"The Pacific was turning gold in the setting sun. I thought about how long it had been since I'd stood on the beach at Montauk, on the opposite side of the country , looking out at a different sea."
The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
"I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather. This is where the bed I shared with my sister, Prim, stood. Over there was the kitchen table. The bricks of the chimney, which collapsed is a charred heap, provide a point of reference for the rest of the house. How else could I orient myself in this sea of gray?
-Dale Linabury
Now she was scared. She pulled one foot out, then the other, but when she looked up, she knew it was to late; the bus was bearing down on her, and she was about to become roadkill. She screamed as the grill ofthe bus hit-
-Then she was moving past the driver, through the seats and legs and luggage, and finally through a loud grinding engine in the back, and then shewas in the open air again. The bus was gone, and her feetwere still sinking into the roadway. A trail of leaves and dust swept past her, dragged in the bus's wake.
Did I...Did I just pass through a bus?
Everlost, Neal Shusterman
Emilee Bursch
"On a table light and candles stood in a polished golden holder and cast a soft flickering glow." -Lois Lowry 'The giver'
Anna DiMarzio
"The temple, with its aquamarine-painted door and rusty hinges. The plaza, shimmering now with water. The gods in the trees and the leaves we take such care to put back on, the apartments painted pink and blue and white and orange. The mining bays, the beautiful broken drones, the dark ocean room and the metal scraps glinting in the sky room. The prows and bellies of the gondolas, their sleek way of moving through the canals. The priests, who wear robes and minister to others, and the workers who throw gold coins into the wishing pools and the children who sing as they run across the plazas, their feet fast and their arms open wide.
And Ture. Most of all True. ~Atlantia by Ally Condie
Jenna Morse
The Spartan yelled,"No! Fall back!" and bent over to retrieve the rocket launcher. Even as he barked the order, he knew there simply wasn't time. Another Spartan might have been able to dodge in time, but the h**ljumpers didn't have a prayer.
The distance between the alien and the two Marines had closed by then and they couldn't disengage. The Corporal threw a fragmentation grenade, saw it explode in front of the oncoming monster, and started in disbelief as it kept on coming. The alien charged right through the flying shrapnel, bellowed some sort of war cry, and lowered a gigantic shoulder.
Private Hosky was still firing when the gigantic shield hit him, shattered half the bones in his body, and threw what was left onto the ground. The private remained conscious however, which meant he was able to lie there and watch as the Hunter lifted his boot high into the air, and brought it down on his face.
-Ben Hunt- Halo The Flood by William C. Dietz
She was as tall as a draft .Her blond silky hair went just past her lower back. Her baby blue eyes as blue as the summer sky. And her long eyelashes ,her perfect white teeth ,and her cheekbones perfectly set on her tan skin not a mark on her skin . She was one of a kind .
-kathy miller
Maddie Thibeault
"Downy flakes fall swiftly past the glow of the streetlight. A sprinkle of white flurries cast against the dark of night. The snow is crisp. The stars are bright. I spread my arms and take flight. Wings fluttering as I fly, up into the earning sky."
-Christy Ann Martin (The snow angel)
"When he opened the lid with trembling fingers. Inside,cushioned in velvet lining,was a terrifying,LIFE-ALERTING, incredibly important piece of wood."
Hendrick DeJesus
At first glance, it could've been an explorer's hut in the most remote of jungles. but of course it was only a guesthouse hidden in the forest-the faux forest- behind the Pavillion.
-Mason Infantino
"My mother gives an odd, breathy laugh and removes the game bag loaded with supplies from my shoulder."
Suzanne Collins, "Catching Fire"
- Abby Laine "At the back of Mrs. Bradley's room stood a wire book rack. The kind you spin. The kind that holds paper-back novels in the supermarket. But this rack never held any books. Instead, at the beginning of the year, each student received a paper lunch bad to decorate with crayons and stickers and stamps. Then we opened our bags and hung them on the rack with a couple pieces of tape."
- Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why
<3" When I insert the microcard , the humming takes on a most purposeful sound. The portscreen brightens and my heart beats faster in anticipation, even though...."<3
- Matched By Ally Condie
-Julia Pilon
"When Bruno first approached the boy, he was sitting cross-legged on the ground, staring at the dust beneath him. However, after a moment he looked up and Bruno saw his face. It was quite a strange face too. His skin was almost the color of grey that Bruno had ever seen before. He had very large eyes and they were the color of caramel sweets; the whites were very white, and when the boy looked at him all Bruno could see was an enormous pair of sad eyes staring back." - The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
- Jack Cote
"Thomas awoke to a weak ,lifeless light. His first thought was that he must've gotten up earlier than usual ,that dawn was still a hour away. But then he heard the shouts. And then he looked up though the leafy canopy or branches".
The Maze Runner
-Max Epstein
"My teach has no face. She has uncombed stringy hair that droops on her shoulders. The hair is black from her part to her ears and then neon orange to the frizzy ends."
-Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak
Abby M-H
"A ghost ran toward them-- an old man with a medicine ball belly and toga so long he kept tripping on it"
Brendan Herrick-Achilla
Deme on Miller
"I take a bite of the sour lemon ,and it makes my lips pucker and my body twinge".
-William Faulkner
"Thickly falling snow, tossed and turned by wailing wind, filled the air with streaky blursof white and grey. It was hard to see. It was hard to move. It was even hard the breathe." -AVI "Perloo"
Tori Hall
"I arm myself before I leave the house: a snub-nosed forty five in the pocket of my black leather coat; another smaller pistol in my right boot; a razor sharp knife strapped inside my left boot."
Christopher Pike, Thirst
Chris Chase
" In the night, the colors wash away; gray and black take over. Now and then a pinprick of light flashes as a street lamp lights up. The air-train tracks, dull in the daylight, look like beautiful glowing paths above the ground now that their evening lights have been turned on."
Ally Condie , Matched
Gabby Salvatore 213
"We drive up to a house the color of dirt.Tall,thin trees surround it, like guards on watch. There is a "66" on the mailbox. A palindrome."
"One,two,three...seven,eight,nine. Standing on the porch, I count the leaves on the plastic wreath that hangs o the door. The bright redness of the flowers reminds me of the swirling of the lights."
"Then he held up his right hand, and there was his paper yoda finger puppet on his finger"
-The strange case of origami yoda
-Luke Daley-Poutenis
"My body was subtilized, or rather became volatile, and commingled in a state of atomic vapor, with the prodigious clouds, which rushed forward like a mighty comet into infinite space."
-Jules Verne "Journey to the Center of the Earth"
-Alex Powers:)
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