Teaser Tuesday: The Key to the Golden Firebird by Maureen Johnson

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books And A Beat.
To play along just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Key to the Golden Firebird by Maureen Johnson.

The Key to the Golden Firebird –
HarperCollins Publishers

So we didn’t stop calling each other – I stopped calling her. I didn’t know what to say to her anymore or what to do.
— Chapter 11

She had used the full “I love you” construction. Not even “love ya!” or “I totally love you!” – either of which might have meant she wasn’t serious.
— Chapter 14

For some odd reason whenever I recommend this book to someone I almost say keys instead of key ... but there clearly is just that one key and therefore I really shouldn’t have this problem. Maybe I’m projecting and want there to be more than one key. But who knows, the brain is a weird place and don’t get me started on the psyche. Anyway, an early book of one of my favourite authors. In fact, the very first (I think? I could be horribly mistaken). And also the very first I read and loved, which convinced me to keep reading whatever else she writes. Considering her Twitter output that’s a lot. I might have missed something there.
What I love most about Maureen’s writing is this wonderful mixture where one paragraph has you in stitches from laughing so much while the next can be a life and death race to the next tissue box. This is a book about grief, but also about family and love and perseverance. Yes, there are early book issues. I know that now, over ten years later, but I still love this book, even with its issues and I think that you shouldn’t blame a piece of its time for not being up to current standards. No one blames Homer for not giving Odysseus a Sat Nav to get home quicker either.

Are there books on which your perspective has changed over the course of time? Let me know about them and your teasers in the comments!