Plagiarism?

by Lila Fraizer

Plagiarism is a bad thing. I get upset with kids who grab a paragraph off Wikipedia and turn it in for their homework. But I must say I'm happy to find a place in my story to use a phrase like "the night stood still" or "a night too dark for shadows."

If I were writing a story about World War II, I'd surely want to use a sentence about a Civil Defense black out, such as "The all-clear sounded and the world came back."

I like tho think this isn't plagiarism, rather appreciation for a cluster of beautiful words.

I'm pleased to thank Richard Peck for the above quoted clusters from his children's book On the Wings of Heroes Dial Books, 2007.

Can anything sound so magnificent as just the right words? .

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