Sounds of hammering echoed through cottage lanes as she passed fathers boarding up doors, mother stuffing scarecrows, boys and girls hunched on porches, noses buried in storybooks. The last sight wasn’t unusual, for children in Gavaldon did little besides read their fairy tales. But today Sophie noticed their eyes, wild, frenzied, scouring each page as if their lives depended on it.”
-- Sophie (1. The Princess and the Witch paragraph 2)

Importance: This quote is important because it sets up how people in Gavaldon react to the School Master’s kidnappings. The only person happy about the kidnappings is Sophie. The children do not want to be taken. They do not want a chance to be a part of the fairy tales they read so dearly. This also tells us that, without being kidnapped, the citizens of Gavaldon are not directly involved in the fairy tale universe. They are outsiders, who only learn about it through the books the children...