Welcome, readers! Before we dive into this week's book club conversations, I thought I'd answer a couple of questions about how the book club works.
- "How do I sign up?" No need to sign up! The book club is open to anyone who wants to pop in and participate at any point this year.
- "How do I participate?" Every Monday I'll let you know what chapters we're reading during the upcoming week, and on Fridays I'll post an excerpt or other activity right here on the blog. You're welcome to chime in right here in the blog comments. We also have a discussion forum, and you're welcome to post new threads or respond to existing ones.
- "How does the forum work?" The forum is divided up into subforums, which is where all the conversations happen. For right now most of our conversations will happen in the Book One subforum, but there are also subforums for the other books, for the whole series, for the animated series, for Wingfeather Tales, and for other conversations. Some of the discussions started a long time ago, but you are welcome to post anywhere.
Please let me know if there are any other questions! I want to make sure everything is clear. Sorry for any confusion. Now, onward to this week's excerpt!I really enjoy the introductions, and the last two paragraphs of the first one especially stood out to me this time around. If you've seen the animated short film, you'll probably hear these words in Oskar's cheerful and dramatic voice. He is such a good reader. :-) Here is the entirety of "A Brief Introduction to the World of Aerwiar."
The old stories tell that when the first person woke up on the first morning in the world where this tale takes place, he yawned, stretched, and said to the first thing he saw, “Well, here we are.” The man’s name was Dwayne, and the first thing he saw was a rock. Next to the rock, though, was a woman named Gladys, whom he would learn to get along with very well. In the many ages that followed, that first sentence was taught to children and their children’s children and their children’s parents’ cousins and so on until, quite by accident, all speaking creatures referred to the world around them as Aerwiar.On Aerwiar there were two main continents divided by one main ocean called the Dark Sea of Darkness. By the Fourth Epoch, the harsh land east of the sea had come to be known as Dang and has little to do with this tale (except for the Great Evil that came to exist there and waged a Great War on pretty much everybody).That evil was a nameless evil, an evil whose name was Gnag the Nameless. He ruled from high atop the Killridge Mountains in the Castle Throg, and of all the things Gnag despised in Aerwiar, he most hated the High King Wingfeather of the Isle of Anniera. For some reason no one could guess, Gnag and his wretched hordes had marched westward and gobbled up the Shining Isle of Anniera, where fell the good king, his house, and his noble people.Unsatisfied, the Nameless Evil (named Gnag) built a fleet that bore his monstrous army westward across the Dark Sea of Darkness to the continent of Skree. And he ravaged that wide land, nine long years before our adventure begins.
Discussion:Where are you in your family? Oldest? Youngest? Middle? Have you ever felt like Janner does in chapters 3-5?Janner wants to see the world. If you could go anywhere, where would you go? (Followup question here.)What was your favorite part of this week's reading? Post it in the comments! And then come introduce yourself in the forum. :-)