1. Definition: To build and start a fire.
Kindle (verb)
Definition: To build and start a fire.
Example:
“The pioneers had been up since four that morning, when the sentries started the day by firing their rifles. Hurrying about in the darkness, they had kindled fires, put on kettles of water, milked cows, pulled down tents, loaded wagons, and fixed breakfast.”
Russell Freedman – Children of the Wild West

2. Definition: A small, rounded hill.
Knoll (noun)
Definition: A small, rounded hill.
Example:
“When the Sillingtons first settled in Clarion County, before there was a state road parallel to the lake, they owned all the land down to the water’s edge. The house itself is perched atop a knoll, and from the upstairs windows you get a good view of the lake.”
E. L. Konigsburg – The View from Saturday

3. Definition: Giving off light; shining.
Luminous (adj.)
Definition: Giving off light; shining.
Example:
“It was almost exactly two hours later that Jessica found herself suddenly wide awake and staring through the darkness at the luminous hands of the clock.”
Zilpha Keatley Snyder – The Witches of Worm

4. Laurence Yep – Dragonwings
Malleable (adj.)
Definition: Capable of being shaped or formed by pressing, hammering, or another forceful action.
Example:
“The throne itself was of pure, unalloyed gold, and since pure, unalloyed gold is almost as malleable as clay, a crew of dragon goldsmiths was kept busy all the time repairing the throne where the Lord might have dented it.”
Laurence Yep – Dragonwings

5. Definition: To appear out of nowhere.
Materialize (verb)
Definition: To appear out of nowhere.
Example:
“Although pests like mice, cockroaches, and mosquitoes sometimes seem to materialize out of thin air, by the 18th century just about everyone agreed that they were born from parents of the same species, not from muck or swamp water.”
Louise E. Robbins – Louis Pasteur and the Hidden World of Microbes

6. Definition: To follow a winding and turning course.
Meander (verb)
Definition: To follow a winding and turning course.
Example:
“Snug in their furs, the two children ran out across the great snow-covered slope in front of the house, through the grove, and down to where a frozen river meandered across the park, after falling over two or three artificial cascades, not stiff and gleaming with icicles.”
Joan Aiken – The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

7. Ellen Raskin – The Westing Game
Meticulous (adj.)
Definition: Showing great concern for details; extremely careful or precise.
Example:
“The judge waited for the doorman to enter the information in his slow, cramped lettering. He had to be meticulous in order to prove he was better than his eighth-grade education. It’s a pity he had not gone further, he was quite a clever man.”
Ellen Raskin – The Westing Game

8. Definition: Feelings of doubt or concern.
Misgivings (noun)
Definition: Feelings of doubt or concern.
Example:
“By now, the president had serious misgivings about the professional soldiers who were running the war. He had collected a library of books on military strategy, and he studied them late into the night, just as he had once studied law and surveying.”
Russell Freedman – Lincoln: A Photobiography

9. Beverly Clearly – The Mouse and Motorcycle
Momentum (noun)
Definition: A quantity used to measure the motion of a body, equal to the product of its mass and velocity.
Example:
“Ralph discovered that if he made the noise fast, the motorcycle speeded up. If he slowed the sound, the motorcycle slowed down. He promptly speeded up and raced around in the rectangle of moonlight, where he made another discovery. When he ran out of breath, the momentum of the motorcycle carried him on until he could take another breath.”
Beverly Clearly – The Mouse and Motorcycle

10. Definition: Dull because of being always the same.
Monotonous (adj.)
Definition: Dull because of being always the same.
Example:
“Clicketta, clicketta, clicketta. The song of the locomotive was monotonous as they traveled north, and the hours seemed like Mama’s never-ending ball of thread unwinding in front of them.”
Pam Muñoz Ryan – Esperanza Rising