"The town shriveled and dried up along with the lake, and the people who lived there." Chapter 1, page 3.

"He'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time." Chapter 2, page 7.

"It was all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather!" Chapter 2, page 7.

"'If only, if only,' the woodpecker sighs..." Chapter 2, page 8.

"You're not in the Girl Scouts anymore." Chapter 4, page 13.

"A lot of people don't believe in curses." Chapter 8, page 41.

"Even you, Zero. You're not completely worthless." Chapter 12, page 58.

"Stanley moved up one place in line." Chapter 13, page 63.

"It seemed like no matter how much water he drank, he was always thirsty." Chapter18, page 82.

"On the lake, they were all the same reddish brown color - the color of dirt." Chapter 19, page 84.

"When asked how he had lived so long, he said he 'found refuge on God's thumb.'" Chapter 21, page 93.

"If anybody had x-ray vision, it was...