At that age, Alice had grasped the idea that some things in books were real, and others were not. - Django Wexler

Well?" the cat said. "Are we going to walk all the way there?"
"You're going to get fat if you keep being so lazy."
"You say that like it's a bad thing. For cats, being fat that just means that you're winning.

Michael cleared his throat. “You’ve never had a dog, Alice?”
Alice shook her head. “My father didn’t like them.”
“They’re not like cats,” the boy said. “You give them commands.”
“Because they lack all dignity,” said Ashes under his breath.

In desperation, she slid her fingers in the cracks between blocks, looking for some kind of catch or hidden mechanism. Which was ridiculous, she thought, because how complicated could a secret door be if a cat figured it out?