Into the story

First contact with the book. First lines. You never know what is gonna happen. An invitation to a story. A very important part of the book. Here are few of them:


"The world is dark, and light is precious. Come closer, dear reader. You must trust me. I am telling you a story."

Kate Di Camillo - The Tale of Despereaux


"All children, except one, grow up."

J. M. Barrie - Peter Pan


"In the old days, when this story took place, time used to run by clockwork. Real clockwork, I mean, springs and cogwheels and gears and pendulums and so on. When you took it apart you could see how it worked, and how to put it together again. Nowadays, time runs by electricity and vibrating crystals of quartz and goodness knows what else."

Philip Pullman - Clockwork or All wound up


"In the hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

J. R. R. Tolkien - The Hobbit


"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice


"There was once upon a time..."
"A king!" my little readers will instantly exclaim.
No children, you are wrong. There was once upon a time a piece of wood."

Carlo Collodi - Pinocchio


"No one would have believed, in the last years on the nineteenth century, that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water."

H. G. Wells - The War of the Worlds


"There was once a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself - not just sometimes, but always."

Norton Juster - The Phantom Tollbooth


"Not long ago, there lived in London a young married couple of Dalmatian dogs named Pongo and Missis Pongo. (...) They were lucky enough to own a young married couple of humans named Mr. and Mrs. Dearly, who were gentle, obedient, and unusually intelligent - almost canine at times. They understood quite a number of barks: the barks for "Out, please!" "In, please!" "Hurry up with my dinner!" and "What about a walk?"

Dodie Smith - The 101 Dalmatians


"Let's begin with a happy ending."

Jacqueline Wilson - Dustbin baby


"Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to.
Old Marley was dead as a door-nail."

Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol


"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosoper's Stone


"When I opened my eyes I knew that nothing in my miserable life prior to that moment could possibly be as bad as what was about to happen."

F. E. Higgins - The Black Book of Secrets


"It was Christmas Eve in Dublin and the sun was splitting the rocks. The lizards were wearing flip-flops and the cacti that line the streets of the city were gasping.
"Water!" gasped a cactus.
"Diet water!" gasped his girlfriend beside him."

Roddy Doyle - Rover saves Christmas


"In the west, the sun is setting.
It is orange and yellow fire, the sky sooty grey and brown smudge. The sky is full of chimneys and asthmatic birds."

Catherine Webb - The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle



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