Road Trip Wednesday: This Magic Moment

I'm pretty sure I've blogged about my answer to this week's RTW before.  I do have some runners-up, and I realized that what separates the runners-up from the winner is that the runners-up made me cry--I mean, really sob, out loud, on mass transit--and the winner knocked so much breath out of me that I couldn't even cry.  Geez, cheery, right?

This Week's YA Highway Road Trip Topic:

A long-awaited kiss, a surprise ending, a character's sudden decision… these are the moments that make us smile, gasp, and LOVE a book for the rest of our lives.

What is your favorite literary moment?

Ok, spoilers ahead for The Time Traveler's Wife, The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials trilogy), and Mockingjay (Hunger Games trilogy).  You've been warned.

3)  The Time Traveler's Wife: Henry visits Alba at the museum and Claire tries to meet him there.  Other parts of the book make me cry, too--I mean, really, from there on out, the last hundred or so pages, it's basically continuous--but that's the image that stays with me.  Henry and Alba at the museum entrance, and Claire running from her car, just a bit too slowly.

2) The Amber Spyglass: Will and Lyra make their pact to visit the bench.  Really the whole sequence, now that I re-read it, of their realizing they can't stay together, because there is so much false hope.

1) Mockingjay: The silver parachutes.

Using the rope that hangs from the top, I pull myself out of the crush of bodies.  Yes, I can see the rebel army pouring into the Circle, driving the refugees back onto the avenues.  I scan the area for the pods that will surely be detonating.  But that doesn't happen.  This is what happens:

That colon is the most devastating punctuation mark in literature.  For serious.  Because it's really the first time that Katniss, as our narrator, has ever told us to STOP for a second.  This series doesn't come with pause buttons.  And because this plan has been set up, more or less.  And because, my god, it's so close to the end of the book and Prim is still alive.   (Listen, whoever directs that scene on film, I'd be happy to come down to the set and give you some ideas.  Just sayin'.) 

Ok, well, now that you're all crying, I need to cheer you up.  I leave you with something that you've hopefully already seen but definitely want to see again: 

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.


MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON, TWO from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.