The second line is a joke--okay a poor one. dry.gif
If something like this thread exist, please merge this one into it.

Rather than list our favorite quotes, why not discuss passages that best illustrate Jo's skills as a novelist, or compare passages that show Jo's growth (or lack of--if you believe this) as a novelist from Book one to Book seven.

The passage can be mere descriptive paragraphs, a bit of dialog. Note things like use of language, readability, vivid imagery. Discuss the writer's vocabulary. Discuss any challenges for readers--according to age and experience. Also include passages that invoke thought or discussion or invoked a feeling of power or emotion. We can add the discussions of opening and closing passages to discuss the flow of the novel. We can discuss when the POV is most effective and when it limits the narrative as far as believability.

Have fun--lets make this a brain teaser...

We can start with the first paragraph of the first book if you like:

QUOTE
Mr. And Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Pivet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, than you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterous, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.
Page 1 SS/PS

My first thought reading this was: Jo wants us to laugh at these people. The highlighted sentence gives this away, even before she tells us about Vernon and Petunia, we imagine a now stereoptyped pompous English couple with nose in the air, trying to avoid the common masses.