This week in the Ban Rona Book Club we read chapters 12-16 of The Monster in the Hollows, and saw more of the beautiful countryside I'm proud to call home. Professor Sidler and I are in one of those other houses with a lamp still burning—reading, of course. :-)
Janner didn’t realize how tired he was until his head hit the pillow. He and Kalmar had wrestled before dinner, after dinner, and after their baths, so by the time Nia finally ordered them to bed, they were both sweaty and out of breath. Janner opened one of the windows to let the cool air in, then blew out the lamp.“Kal, come look at this!” he whispered.Kalmar knelt beside Janner at the window. The stars seemed close enough to touch, and their beauty was a song in the dark silence of the sky. A night owl hooted from its perch in the tree outside the window. Somewhere in a distant pasture a donkey brayed. The window faced the field behind Chimney Hill, and beyond the fence, Janner could see a road rising and falling and twisting across the countryside, with lanes branching off and winding toward other homesteads and barns. Golden light glowed in the windows where people were still awake, reading or visiting or eating fruity desserts. The brothers knelt for a while in the quiet and looked out on the beauty of the Hollows.“It smells good here,” Kalmar said. “I can smell everything—the owl in the tree over there, the goats in the next pasture—they don’t smell so good, I guess. I can smell apple butter on the hot bread in that house across the way. I don’t know how I’m going to get to sleep.”—From chapter 16, "Podo Helmer Falls in Love."
What was your favorite Wingfeather passage this week, from these chapters or elsewhere? Share it in the comments! And check out what's happening in the forum. There are many great discussions to join, and we've saved you a seat.