Excerpts From the Book

          “That’s right,” Pumpkin replied. “Think of your thoughts as the pictures you place inside of your mind—your very own Magic Camera.  They cause your feelings, Piper.  And whatever you are feeling about yourself is exactly what you will become!”

          With all of her heart, Piper wanted to believe Pumpkin.  But her short little legs were telling her that she should not.

(from page 5)

           Piper lived in a lovely little cottage and, outside, she had a garden in which to play with a gate that led to a forest filled with  rabbits and reindeer and birds that chirped all day.  She had a cat and a dog and, best of all, a mother and a brother and a sister who loved her so much that, each morning, they jumped on top of her bed to hug and kiss her, except that sometimes her brother Alvin would tickle her instead to wake her up, which would make her laugh and cry all at the same time.

     “We have so much, Piper,” Pumpkin said. “And we can have more.  All we have to do is see what we wish for in our mind and feel what it will be like once we have it, and it will come to us."

(from page 8)

            If only I could be tall, Piper thought, none of the children at school would make fun of me.  If I were tall, no one would call me “the little shrimp,” the way Kean Sanders does.

          Kean Sanders was so tall that, during school recess, he was always the first to be chosen as a team member to play kickball.  Kean was so tall that he could run twice as fast as any of the other boys at school.  And because Pumpkin was tall, too, Kean never called her a "little shrimp" and was always kind to her.

(from page 11)

          "But when you imagine, you must do so with great attention to detail, Pumpkin.  You must imagine what you want so vividly that you can smell and taste it. You must enter into your imagined wish, and see yourself—hear yourself—exactly as you would once the wish has come true.”

          As Pumpkin slept soundly in her warm bed that night, her father played a game with her and the Magic Camera.  Together, they took pictures of everything that was wonderful in Gildaville which, magically, they could conjure up through their thoughts.  They took pictures of beautiful mountain tops covered with snow, and sandy pink beaches slipping into the sea.  They snapped photos of maple trees in autumn dressed in gold and orange leaves, and rainbows, and reindeer, and bunny rabbits and doves.

          “It all existed here, Pumpkin, in the Formless Stuff, well before it ever existed in Gildaville.   And there is so much more.”

(from page 14)

        
          Perhaps Cecil Sheridan had said something to upset Piper.  Cecil was always saying and doing things to hurt the other children.  He was so mean that everyone called him the Weasel:  Cecil the Weasel Sheridan, who hated to share and was always hiding something behind his back—even frogs—just so he wouldn’t have to share them with anybody.

(from page 20)

          Excused from the dinner table, she went straight to her room and buried herself under the bed covers, making sure to wrap her favorite blanket tightly around her neck.  And, later that evening, although Piper had been careful to turn her back toward Pumpkin’s bed, Pumpkin could nevertheless hear her little sister’s sighs, which told her that Piper was still crying and unable to fall asleep.  Yet through her pain, and although she didn’t know it, Piper was undergoing a monumental transformation. She was acquiring resolve—the resolve to believe in herself.  For, intuitively, she could feel that to do so was not a gift; it was not something that, effortlessly, could be bestowed upon her.  It was a decision that she must take all by herself.  And so, with the tears still streaming down her cheeks, Piper lulled herself to sleep with the following special words:

“Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.”

(from page28)

To Read the first few pages of the book,

Click on the cover, below