Yes! Our first excerpt from North! Or Be Eaten! Isn't this fun? This week, I read chapters 1-7, and present to you my favorite snippet. What I appreciate about it is the growing sense of foreboding as every "If" brings the Igibys closer to the doom pronounced by the last three words.
Suddenly Janner found himself skidding down a steep bank. Podo had led Nugget into a deep gully and was halfway across the depression, amidst old branches, brown leaves, and rotting tree trunks. The trench stretched a long way in both directions, so they had no choice but to cross it.The donkey stopped dead in its tracks on the rim of the slope. Janner pulled at the reins while Nia pushed from behind, but the animal wouldn’t move. Its eyes were fixed on the gully floor, its nostrils expanding and contracting like a beating heart.If Janner had not been running in fear for his life, he might have remembered what Pembrick’s Creaturepedia had to say about such gullies in Glipwood Forest; he might have thought to warn his family before they scrambled down into the tree-clogged floor. If Janner hadn’t been thinking about the Fangs and trolls snarling through the woods behind him, he would’ve suggested firmly that the Igiby family find a way around the gully, even if it added hours and miles to the journey.If Peet the Sock Man, so familiar with the dangers of the forest, had been with them and not fending off the Fangs and trolls and horned hounds, he would’ve most emphatically suggested that the Igiby family not descend into the hole.But they did.
What was your favorite passage from this week's reading—or anywhere else in the series? Post it in the comments!Don't forget to stop by our discussion forum for some great conversation about all kinds of Wingfeathery topics. We'd love to meet you and hear your thoughts!