My sister saved my life when I was just a baby.
-- Bean as Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph 1)

Importance: This opening sentence not only gets the reader’s attention and pulls him into the story right away. It also sets up the structure of the relationship between the girls.

Except for the fact that he didn’t want to meet me and Liz, Mark Parker was everything Mom had ever wanted in a man. ‘I wish he liked us,’ I said, ‘because other than that, he’s too good to be true.
-- Bean (Chapter 2 paragraph 20)

Importance: Bean doesn’t realize that she has hit so close to the truth about Mark Parker when she tells her mother that he sounds too good to be true.

Oh my gosh,’ I told Liz. ‘It’s the house I’ve been dreaming about all my life.
-- Bean (Chapter 4 paragraph 42)

Importance: When Bean first sees the house at Mayfield she realizes she’s been seeing the house in her dreams...