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18 powerful first lines to get you hooked on a story

18 powerful first lines to get you hooked on a story

by Puffin team

min read

Great books have the power to captivate a reader from their very opening lines. From classic tales to the newest novels, here are our all-time favourites that will get you hooked on a story…

Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho-Yen

'When you wish that a Saturday was actually a Monday, you know there is something seriously wrong.'

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster

'The first Wednesday in every month was a Perfectly Awful Day – a day to be awaited with dread, endured with courage, and forgotten with haste.'

Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson

'Twilight over meadow and water, the eve-star shining above the hill, and Old Nog the heron crying kra-a-ark! as his slow dark wings carried him down to the estuary.'

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

'From the pleasantly situated old town of Maienfeld a footpath leads up through shady green meadows to the foot of the mountains, which, as they gaze down on the valley, present a solemn and majestic aspect.'

Emerald Star by Jacqueline Wilson

'"What are you doing here, child? This is no place for a little lass like you. Come on, tell me your name."'

The Palace of Glass by Django Wexler

'In her nightmares, Alice looked into the magic mirror and watched the steamship burn all over again.'

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

'Marley was dead, to begin with.'

The Casebooks of Captain Holloway: the Disappearance of Tom Pile by Ian Beck

'“Tell us your story,” the voices said. “We want to hear your story – all of it....“'

The Great Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

'From the years 1894 to 1901 inclusive, Mr. Sherlock Holmes was a very busy man.'

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

'Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.'

Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease

'I asked, weren’t we taking the pistol, or anyhow the long, murderous-looking pike which has hung across our broad kitchen chimney ever since I can remember?'

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

'You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.'

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

'Once on a dark winter’s day, when the yellow fog hung so thick and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted and the shop windows blazed with gas as they do at night, an odd-looking little girl sat in a cab with her father and was driven rather slowly through the big thoroughfares.'

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah

'As soon as I got home from school, Aunt Baba noticed the silver medal dangling from the left breast-pocket of my uniform.'

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton

'“Welcome aboard,” said the bear, standing and turning to face the boy.'

World-Eater by Robert Swindells

'It winged its way across the blackness of intergalactic space, searching.'

A.N.T.I.D.O.T.E by Malorie Blackman

'I’m in deep, deep trouble. And like the biggest fool in the universe, I’m about to wade out even deeper still. But I don’t have any choice. Because they’ve got my mum.'

Bogwoppit by Ursula Moray Williams

'Three things were happening inside the Park on that Saturday evening in May.'

18 powerful first lines to get you hooked on a story

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