Between the Lines (2012) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Prince Oliver: A prince unhappy with his storybook existence
• Delilah McPhee: Reader who notices changes in the story and falls in love with Prince Oliver
• Jules: Delilah's one and only non-fictional friend not to mention she's goth.
• Mrs. McPhee: Delilah's mother.
• Jessamyn Jacobs: The author of Oliver's story.
• Edgar: Jessamyn Jacobs' videogame obsessed son.
• Seraphima: Oliver's "princess"
• Frump: The basset hound, Oliver's companion and best friend.
• Socks: Oliver's self-conscious "trusty" steed.
• Queen Maureen: Oliver's "mother"
• King Maurice: Oliver's "father"
• Dr. Ducharme: Delilah's psychiatrist.
• Ondine: Mermaid in the story, Between the Lines
• Marina: Mermaid in the story within the story, Between the Lines
• Glint: A fairy in the book, Between the Lines.
• Captain Crabbe: A captain who appears to be terrifying, but really practices orthodontia whenever the book closes.
• Rapscullio: The supposed villain in the story
• Aunt Agnes: Jules's aunt that she'll be sent to for the summer
• Delilah Mc Phee: Delilah is a 15 year old loner who has an obsession with a kid's fairy tale, but soon this magical little book will lead her on an adventure.
• Prince Oliver: A fairy tale character who will do anything to get out of his book.
• Orville: Wizard in the story
• Sparks: A fairy in the book, Between the Lines.
• Oliver: Oliver is the new prince who wants to be more like is brave father but was not gifted with the trait of courage, he was going to die at birth so the fairy that was suppose to give him the gift of courage had to give him the gift of life. On the same day of his birth his father died so he had no one to teach him bravery.
• Zach: Add a description of this character.
• Cook
• Kyrie: A mermaid
• Mr. Barnaby
• Louis Lamotte
• Allie McAndrews: A cheerleader and classmate of Delilah's whom Delilah keeps hurting.
• Ember: A fairy in the book, Between the Lines.
• Mrs. Brown: A teacher at Deliliah's school.
• Trogg: A troll
• Zorg: Character in a video game
• Ms. Winx
• Brianna: dream & real life
• Biggle
• Pyro
• Samantha van Leer
• Ryan
• Jodi Picoult
• Disney

Quotes edit see section history

• “Your father used to say that being scared just meant you had something worth coming back to. And he used to tell me he was scared all the time.”

  Queen Maureen

• “It's not once upon a time. It's not even twice upon a time. It's hundreds of times, over and over, every time someone opens up the pages of this dusty old book.”

  Prince Oliver

• “I can't remember when I first realized that life, as I knew it, wasn't real. That this role I performed over and over was just that -- a role. And that in order for me to play it, there had to be another party involved -- namely one of those large, round, flat faces that blurred the sky above us every time the story began.”

  Prince Oliver

• “It stands to reason that if I have a life outside of this story, so do the Readers whose faces float above us. And they're not trapped inside the book. So where exactly are they? And what do they do when the book is closed?”

  Prince Oliver

• “Change the story. Yeah, that's a good one, Ollie. While you're at it, why don't you turn the ocean into grape juice and make the mermaids fly?”

  Frump

• “I guess I find it hard to believe that Readers get up at the same hour every morning and eat the same breakfast ever day and go sit in the same chair for hours and have the same conversations with their parents and go to bed and wake up and do it all over again. I think more likely they lead the most incredible lives -- and by incredible, I mean: with free will.”

  Prince Oliver

• “Real fairy tales are not for the fainthearted. In them, children get eaten by witches and chased by wolves; women fall into comas and are tortured by evil relatives. Somehow, all that pain and suffering is worthwhile, though, when it leads to the ending: happily ever after.”

  Delilah McPhee

• “Honesty is as rare as a man who can breathe underwater.”

  Ondine

• “What makes a treasure a treasure is how rare a find it is, when you need it the most.”

  Marina

• “Being a teenager isn't all that different from being part of someone else's story, then. There's always someone who thinks they know better than you do.”

  Delilah McPhee

• “It is a well-known fact that trolls either always tell the truth or always lie. And that every day they build two bridges -- one safe and one designed to collapse at the first hint of weight.”

• “No one ever asks a kid for her opinion, but it seems to me that growing up means you stop hoping for the best, and start expecting the worst. So how do you tell an adult that maybe everything wrong in the world stems from the fact that she's stopped believing the impossible can happen?”

  Delilah McPhee

• “This was why there was music, he realized. There were some feelings that just didn't have words big enough to describe them.”

• “There is no way to explain to three characters inside a book that a world might exist beyond their imaginations. It's why people don't believe in aliens, and why no one else believes in Oliver.”

  Delilah McPhee

• “I don't traipse. Men don't traipse. We . . . swagger.”

  Prince Oliver

• “In my world, you don't get married when you're fifteen. Unless you're pregnant and have been on an MTV show.”

  Delilah McPhee

• “A date. You mean like . . . the first Thursday in July?”

  Prince Oliver

• “Just because it's fiction doesn't mean it's any less true.”

  Prince Oliver

• “Wrong fairy tale. I think wryly. I'm the one who's going to save the prince.”

  Delilah McPhee

• “That the story isn't mine to change anymore. Maybe it belonged to me at first, but now it belongs to you. And to everyone else who's ever read it. The act of reading is a partnership. The author builds a house, but the reader makes it a home.”

  Jessamyn Jacobs

• “The characters used to talk to me too. I think any writer would say the same thing. But Delilah, even if I changed the ending, the story already exists in the world in the memories of all of its readers. Once a story is told to someone, it can't be erased.”

  Jessamyn Jacobs

• “He understood, in the crystalline instant, that courage wasn't something you were bequeathed at birth, and it wasn't a lack of fright. It was overcoming your fear, because the ones you love mattered more.”

• “Oh, darling, that's what love is. It's some power greater than you and me, that draws us to one special person.”

  Queen Maureen

• “What makes a treasure a treasure, is how rare a find it is, when you need it the most.”

  Marina

• “It seems to me that growing up means you stop hoping for the best, and start expecting the worst.”

  Delilah

• “So how do you tell and adult that maybe everything wrong in the world stems from the fact that she's stopped believing the impossible can happen?”

  Delilah

• “It's like there is a whole story Oliver is telling me without words, as if what he's feeling can't be described, and has to be experienced instead.”

  Delilah

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Enchanted Forest

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

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• Love knows no boundaries.: Describe this theme.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Jodi Picoult (Author)
2. Samantha van Leer (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Yvonne Gilbert (Illustrator)
2. Scott M. Fischer (Illustrator)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PZ7.P5557 Bet 2012
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Teens › Literature & Fiction › Love & Romance

More Books Like This edit see section history