Top 10 first lines in children's and teen books
Children's author Jon Walter put a lot of thought into the first line of his debut book, Close to the Wind. The process of writing it got him thinking: what are the best opening lines in kids books? Here are his top 10 favourites.
• Read the first chapter of Jon's book, Close to the Wind
• Read the first chapter of Jon's book, Close to the Wind
Sometimes the opening line of a book can tell you whether you are going to love it straight away. Photograph: Alamy
The boy and the old man arrived at the port at night.
That's the first line in my debut novel, Close to the Wind, and I'm rather proud of it. The line doesn't shout out at you, but it does a lot of work establishing the tone of the book and giving you the setting and characters without any fuss.
It's always difficult to know how to begin a book. Originally, I had a much bolder first line but during an editorial meeting it was suggested I lose it and start with the second line in.
Of course, I objected. I said it was the best line I'd ever written and had taken me months to construct, but I promised I would have a think about it. By the time I arrived back home I knew it would have to go. For a different book it would have been perfect but for this one it just wasn't right.
An opening sentence should draw the reader from their own head and take them somewhere completely different. It's the start of a whole new world and for that reason, probably the most important line of any book. Here are 10 of my favourites…
It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried out bed of the old North Sea.
1. Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.
Is this the best ever opening line from a children's book? Reeve's theory of Municipal Darwinism involves huge traction cities feeding off one another and when you have a premise this good, how can you begin the book any other way? Only one line in to it and I couldn't leave till the book was finished.
The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say.
2. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.
A great book that's all about the voice and he nails it in the first line. Todd Hewitt lives in Prentisstown and it's not only his dog that speaks. Everyone can hear each other's thoughts and their heads are always full of noise - until Todd meets a girl who shouldn't exist and the silence that surrounds her.
There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.
3. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
This book has a fantastic opening as we follow the knife and the hand that holds it, letting it lead us through a murder scene in search of a missing baby, the last one to be killed. This masterful device puts the gruesome scene at a safe enough distance for us to cope with and means we are rooting for the hero's escape before we've even met him.
The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards.
4. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin
Elegant prose that's solid as a rock. This may be quiet but it's so assured that you can relax into it, knowing you won't be disappointed in what is to follow. So begins one of the best ever books about a school for wizards.
Ruth Ackroyd was in the garden checking the rhubarb when the RAF Spitfire accidently shot her chimney pot to bits.
5. Life: An Exploding Diagram by Mal Peet
This one breaks all the rules. Essentially it's a flashback and it's not about the main character either. In fact it's hard to gauge exactly what the book is about for quite a while but then you begin to get a sense of it's huge scope and remember what you should have known all along because it was always there in the title. Fantastic writing!
Whatever it was, it could only have been dead for a couple of hours.
6. The Fearful by Keith Gray.
It's good, but perhaps it's not as strong as the first line in Gray's Ostrich Boy: "Our best friend was ash in a jar." But, a book about a father and son out collecting road kill at dawn to feed a huge lake monster that may or may not be real – this line from The Fearful is a great way to start any book.
On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide – it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese – the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope.
7. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
You have to sit up and concentrate for this one. This book's going to make you work! An opening line that gives up the plot isn't common but this book, a haunting tale of wasted youth, has more important things to focus on than what happens next.
If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.
8. The Bad Beginning: A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
If I hadn't told you what it was, you would have probably guessed anyway. The premise and tone for a complete series of books, all contained in the opening line, as the three Baudelaire siblings suffer the first of a great many misfortunes.
On the morning of its first birthday, a baby was found floating in a cello case in the middle of the English Channel.
9. Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell
This promises fairytale storytelling and charm by the bucket load and it doesn't disappoint as Sophie tightrope walks her way above the rooftops of Paris, escaping the clutch of the authorities, in a search for her long lost mother.
In the sea, once upon a time, O my best beloved, there was a Whale and he ate fishes.
10. Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.
A book of bedtime stories about beginnings, Kipling's Just So Stories is so utterly distinct it leaves me feeling that every story should begin this way – shouldn't it?
Jon Walter's debut novel Close to the Wind is available in the Guardian Bookshop now. You can read the first chapter of Jon's book, Close to the Wind here.
http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/aug/10/top-10-best-opening-lines-children-teen-books?CMP=fb_gu
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