Fantastic First Sentences

Fantastic First Sentences for the First Month of the Year!

by Lauren Fox

Have you ever read the first sentence of a book and it was so good you had to keep going? Check out these great first sentences from children’s and young adult books. If one of them intrigues you, click the sentence to go to the catalog and see what the book is! From there, you can put it on hold so you can borrow it and read the rest.

Children’s Books:

1. They were playing tag when the first torpedo hit. 
2. I grip Dad’s old army compass, willing myself not to launch it at the obnoxious raven heckling me from the bedroom window. 
3. Answelica was a goat with teeth that were the mirror of her soul – large, sharp, and uncompromising.
4. The smoking star lit the night sky as women wept, holding their babies close.
5. The dragon wasn’t happy with the roses. 
6. Imagine the worst smell you can think of, multiply it by rotten fish, and I promise you a turkey truck stinks worse. 
7. Clementine Morcerous awoke one morning to discover that her father had no nose. 
8. I never dreamed my house had a secret unknown to my parents or me – and believe me, when I discovered it, I had no plans to get involved. 
9. It was deep in the afternoon of the last Tuesday of summer when I kicked away a willow branch lying on the riverbank and found the head. 
10. I thought I knew all of my grandmother’s stories, but I was wrong. 
11. When Mama told me that we were going to Bogalusa, Louisiana, for the summer, I should have said, “Even if dollar bills grew on oak trees there, I’m not leaving Atlanta.” 

Young Adult Books:

1. I’m not dressed to find a body. 
2. The silver key resting on my palm looked pretty ordinary, but what it unlocked was not.
3. Mom asks me to rob the house at the bottom of the hill. 
4. Picture it: me in the middle of Making Proud Choices class–that’s SEX ED for anyone not born in this century. 
5. For the first time in thirteen years, it snows in Snakebite.
6. When my eyes open again, it’s to the sight of my teammates’ worried faces looking down at me. 
7. Nothing can prepare you for the bright lights of fame. 
8. When I wake up, all my friends are dead. 
9. I share a bedroom with my older sister Kim, which wouldn’t be a problem except she has this habit of making a face whenever I walk in. 
10. There’s a Hi-Chew flavor for every occasion. 
11. By the time I met Sarah, she’d already been dead for two decades.