Ban Rona Book Club

BRBC week 16: A daggerfish!

Sometimes I have a hard time deciding which passage to post each week. Tonight was one of those nights. I asked Professor Sidler, "Should I post the part where Janner's in the box? or the part where he's getting water and sees a daggerfish?" Professor Sidler said, "I'd post the daggerfish. It's hard to beat a daggerfish." So here's a daggerfish. :-)

When he emerged from the house, Janner found dawn fast approaching. No Fangs marched past, and no old man snored on the stoop.In the rosy gold light of the sky just before the sunrise, Janner searched the debris around the house until he found a large clay pot. There was no sign of Fangs, so he sprinted across the road and skidded down the bank to the water’s edge. The surface was glassy, undisturbed except by occasional rings where water bugs alighted. Suddenly a fish broke the surface with a great splash and hung in the air for a moment before pointing its needle-sharp snout back into the water and sinking away.“A daggerfish!” Janner said with wonder. Then, more seriously, “A daggerfish.” He filled the pot and scrambled away from the water line.
Activity: What do you think the Fork! Factory! sign looks like? Design a logo.Discussion: What was your favorite passage this week?What Skreean animal would you love to see in the wild?Want a deeper discussion on what Janner's thinking about in the box, or about his hard decision at the end of this week's reading, or about the choice that Tink made? Visit our forum and start up a conversation.

BRBC week 15: Stars in a storm

This week's reading was hard. There are more hard chapters coming. There is also "light and high beauty forever beyond the reach of shadows," but we must go through the shadows to get there. Take heart.

The next day Janner woke before the bell-clanger arrived. ...He needed a way out, and as far as he could see, the only way out was through the portcullis. But even if he figured a way to get through the long corridor to the empty floor, he had no way to open the gate. He’d seen the way two children strained to raise it; there was no way he was strong enough or fast enough to do it alone.But what if he wasn’t alone?Sara Cobbler had helped him once. Maybe she’d do it again.Janner smiled. He knew what to do. He just had to find Sara.He scanned the faces around the table carefully. Of the forty or fifty children eating their soup in silence, none was Sara Cobbler. He studied the children serving the soup, the ones who stirred the vats of soup, but none was Sara Cobbler. Throughout his first shift he looked for her, in the faces of those who passed, those who brought him new carts of bad blades, those on the high walkways, and even among the Maintenance Managers. But she was nowhere to be seen. He began to wonder if he had dreamed her up.When he returned to the dining hall after his shift, he found her at last.She sat at the table on the opposite side of the room, stirring her bowl mechanically. Her face was still dirty, her hair still matted, but he knew it was her, even before she raised her eyes and rested them on him. Stars in a storm, Janner thought again, and he smiled at her across the room. Almost imperceptibly, like the swish of a redgill fin beneath the surface of the river, she smiled back.Janner’s insides swelled. Before he had time to think about it, he walked straight toward her. Her eyes widened, and she went back to her soup, stirring it a little too fast. Janner sat across from her and lowered his voice.“Thank you,” he said. “I remember you—from the Dragon Day Festival last year.”She didn’t answer.A Maintenance Manager passed, and Janner looked down quickly and slurped a spoonful of broth. “I need your help,” he said after a moment. “We’re going to get out of here—I’ll get you back to your parents. But I can’t do it alone. Can you help me?”“I can’t,” she whispered. “They’ll put me in the box again.”“You’ve been in the…?” Janner’s heart ached for her. He wondered how many of the children in the factory had endured that awful place. “Listen. I can get us out of here. Will you help me?”She shook her head again.“Sara,” Janner said, then he paused while another manager walked by. “I can’t stay here. There’s something I’m supposed to do. I don’t know what it is yet, but my brother and sister and I—" ... He wanted to tell her. ...“You have to trust me,” he said instead. “Please.”She paused. “What do you want me to do?”Janner grinned. “I knew you were a brave one. I knew it.”Sara Cobbler smiled.Janner was glad she smiled. He knew he would need it to carry him through the next three days and nights in the coffin.
Discussion: What passage stood out to you most this week? The rooftop chase? The heat of the factory? The name Flavogle? Janner's experience in the coffin? I would love to hear how you're connecting with the story, either here in the comments or in the forum.Bonus activity: Check online to see if your local historical society has a blacksmithing demonstration. It'll be interesting to watch, and they probably won't kidnap you and force you to make swords.

BRBC week 14: Skewered like a daggerfish

The Florid Sword scenes are so fun to read out loud in a swashbuckly voice! But this scene, right before he appears, cracked me up this week.

“Sneem!” called Glag, now on the tower platform.Only a few steps from the cobbler’s door, Sneem stopped and turned. “Eh?”“Forgot to tell you. Word has it he’s back.”“The Florid Sword?” Sneem asked.“Or whatever he calls himself. He was spotted on the west side of town already tonight, so be wary.”“Bah! Let him come. I’ll skewer him like a daggerfish.”After a moment Glag said, “Do you mean, you’re the daggerfish doing the skewering, or do you mean you’ll skewer him like he’s a daggerfish that you’re trying to stab in the river?”Sneem cocked his snaky head sideways to sort out the question. “Either way, the Florid Sword gets skewered, don’t he?”“I sssuppose,” said Glag, “but it might be harder to stab him if he was swimming about in the water like a daggerfish. Them are fast. But if you was the daggerfish, you’d just leap out of the river and jab him, right?”Sneem thought about this for a moment, then said, “I’ll get ‘im. Like a fish.”
Discussion: Have you ever tried to do the right thing, only to have it fail?Would you be a better ruler or Strander?What was your favorite passage from chapters 29-34? Post it below!

BRBC week 13: Tackleball in the fog

There's something about today's excerpt that I love, and it's not just that it reminds me of my girlhood in the Hollows. Something about the fog changes the sound of the passage in my ears, even when (particularly when) I'm reading to myself silently. Do you know what I mean?

Janner woke to a world shrouded in fog.It draped the ground, creeping up from the river and collecting in eerie pools around tree trunks and depressions in the land, coursing between the rickety buildings that made up the settlement of the clan of the East Bend. The structures were made of planks and shutter boards, leftovers from the ravaging of Skree at the end of the Great War. They reminded Janner of Peet’s tree house, but unlike Peet’s castle, these buildings were shabby and unkempt, constructed without imagination or care. Stranders slept in or near the shacks, nothing for their beds but dirt, no pillows but their dingy hair and dirty arms. Beyond the shacks, deeper in the fog, squatted the cages.Janner could see nothing inside them, and the iron gates hung open. The Strander children had been so timid when they approached the camp the night before. May we come near? the girl Maraly had asked, and they hadn’t approached until Claxton gave his permission. Why were the children so careful around the adults? And where were their parents?Then he realized Tink was gone. The rest of the company lay fast asleep by the ashes of the fire, but Tink was nowhere to be seen. Janner scrambled to his feet.In the trees to his left, he heard voices, then a giggle. Tink appeared out of the fog at a trot, holding a leather ball under his arm. Janner breathed a sigh of relief and waved. Tink waved back, put a finger to his lips, and vanished into the fog again.Janner tiptoed away from the fire and followed Tink into the fog. Before he had taken two steps, Maraly materialized out of the mist like a ghost. Janner gasped and braced himself for a fight—the girl had a wild, mean look in her eyes.Out of the fog flew the ball Tink had been carrying. It smashed into the side of Maraly’s head, and she staggered sideways, scooped up the ball, and disappeared into the fog again, whispering, “Kalmar! I’ll get you. You can’t outsmart Maraly Weaver.”
Discussion: What was your favorite passage this week?Activity: Write a poem about fog.Play Tackleball! Download the book club kit for North! Or Be Eaten for the official rules. You can find the kit on our Book Club Kits page. :-)

BRBC week 12: Yes.

After the end of last week's reading, we might all be wondering whether the heartache and uprooting are worth what the Igibys hope to gain. In this week's excerpt, Janner is wondering too.(If you haven't read the first book yet, this excerpt will be a bit spoilery.)

As Peet screamed on the road to Lamendron, morning birds chirped in the clearing where the Igibys slept. Cold blue light crept through the slit in the tent door.Janner stretched, forcing his eyes open and shaking the cobwebs from his mind. To his left, Podo snored so loudly that Janner wondered how it hadn’t woken him sooner. Oskar didn’t snore, but with every long exhale of breath, his lips made a windy pfffffhhhhhhh.Janner propped himself on one elbow and rubbed his eyes. In the faint light he could see Tink asleep with his head on Podo’s leg and Leeli curled up beside Nia with her backpack cuddled to her chest the way she used to hold Nugget. Janner crept from the tent.The clearing was soft with dewy mist. Chunks of rubble rose out of the fog like gravestones, but the effect wasn’t unpleasant. He had been awake for many sunrises before, but never so close to the cliffs that he could watch the fiery ball lift itself from the sea. He walked through wet grass and sat with his feet dangling over the cliff.The Dark Sea of Darkness wasn’t dark at all at this hour. Feathery clouds at the edge of the world glowed orange and savage yellow. Birds wheeled in the bright air far below.Janner thought of his life only weeks ago, in the dregs of summer, when hay needed baling, the hogpig needed feeding, the garden needed weeding, and life was boring. So much had happened to the Janner he used to be. His life had been in danger countless times. More tears had been shed in these last weeks than in his whole life before. Nugget was dead, the Glipwood Township ravaged. Before, he lived under the oppression of the Fangs of Dang, but now he was on the run from them.Then he thought of his father, Esben, and remembered the picture of him sailing on his twelfth birthday, an image Janner considered the essence of freedom. He thought about the royal blood in his veins and about the long-gone glory of his kingdom.He had been too busy to think much about the real Anniera. It hovered in the distance of his best dreams but remained a dream only. It was hard to believe it actually existed, that across these very waters a home awaited him. A real island where there had once been real towns, where there stood a real castle—the castle where he was born. Janner ached to see it. He remembered the words of his father’s letter: “This is your land, and nothing can change that.” He imagined lying in the warm wind of a heathery slope, eyes closed so he could feel the heartbeat of his land.He was only twelve, but he knew enough to realize that the way before him would be hard. Is it worth it? he asked himself. Was it worth losing his old life in order to learn the truth of who he was and who he was becoming?Yes.Like the pluck of a stringed instrument, the first edge of the sun broke loose and poured light over the world.
Discussion: Can we talk about the right kind of tears?If you haven't read the books before, what do you think of Yurgen's warning?What was your favorite passage this week?Forum fun: Anyone for a writing challenge? What book would you want your skeleton found with? How do you pronounce Anniera (or Oood, or Nia, or Leeli)? Who would win in a fight?

BRBC week 11: Fingap Falls

Good day, readers! This segment of North! Or Be Eaten (chapters 8-14) was intense, wasn't it? The gargan rockroach, the trolls and Fangs, the spray of the falls, Podo's and Nugget's scenes in chapter 14... whew. There were several moments I wish we could've read together, but I settled on this one below. It combines tension, sadness, and a sort of high beauty that (thank you, Leeli) makes me feel a little fierce too.

Finally, they rounded the bend in the river and beheld, far below, a plume of rainbow-lit mist, the hissing cloud that churned up from Fingap Falls. The river was split by jagged, towering crags into hundreds of roaring courses that tumbled downward in white madness. Far beyond and below the mist lay the wide, silent gray of the Dark Sea of Darkness.Such a view demanded that the company stop in its tracks. They huddled together, sopping wet and weary. If Janner had been able to read minds, he would’ve learned that each of them had the same thought: with the Fangs behind and the falls ahead, it seemed certain the river would kill them. It would suck them in and hurl them into the cold black Deep.Tink stood in front of his grandfather, trying to be heard above the roar of the falls.“What?” yelled Podo.“I said, I don’t see a bridge!” Tink shouted.Tink was right. The idea that there had ever been a bridge at Fingap Falls struck Janner as ridiculous now that he could see the place with his own eyes.“What do we do?” Janner cried.“We go!” said Leeli. Wind whipped her hair across her face, and she looked at the sea with a familiar look of fierce determination.Podo’s face, however, was ashen. He stood with a steadying hand on Oskar’s shoulder, and his eyes shot every which way but toward the sea. The two men were a pitiful sight. Oskar’s belly was wrapped in bloody bandages, and the top of his head glistened with moisture. Water and sweat dripped from Podo’s eyebrows. Their shoulders sagged, and their mouths hung open. It was unfair that two old men—two good men who ought to be sitting by the fire with their feet up and their bellies full—clung to each other on the banks of the Mighty Blapp with death before them and death behind.“Grandpa,” Leeli said. “I can see the sea from here, and it’s not dark at all. It’s wide and terrible and beautiful. We’re supposed to go that way. I don’t know why, and I know I should be afraid, but there’s something…right about it. Something about the size of the ocean, about the way it stretches out forever and flat—it makes me want to sing.”
Discussion: Have you ever seen the sea? What did it make you feel?"Don't just follow your heart," Podo says. "Your heart will betray you." Come talk with us about this in the forum.What was your favorite scene from this week's reading?

BRBC week 10: Sounds in the forest

Welcome to the first week of North! Or Be Eaten! I picked the following excerpt for the delicious onomatopoeic leaf sounds. Every time I read it, I can hear them.

His thoughts were interrupted by a strange sound in the forest.Janner peered into the trees, wondering if it was his imagination. After weeks in Glipwood Forest, he had come to recognize the shriek of the cave blat, the gribbit of the bumpy digtoad, the horrible moo of the toothy cow, and the wail of the horned hound. Peet had even taught Janner and his siblings about the various birds that sang in the boughs and how to tell which ones were hostile, which were mischievous, and which were singing dirges for fellow birds that had been gobbled by a gulpswallow.But this sound was different. It was almost human. Janner took quick stock of his family to be sure everyone was present, and to his increasing alarm, all were.“Shh!” Janner clamped a hand over Tink’s mouth. “Hear that?”“Mmmf,” Tink replied.The sound got louder, now accompanied by the faint kshhh-kshhh of snapping twigs and brush trampled underfoot. Podo and Nia heard it too. They all stood, heads turned, listening. Nugget whined and paced back and forth until Leeli hushed him.Finally, the voice echoing through the timbers grew near enough that the words became clear.“IN THE WORDS OF UBINIOUS THE WHOONED, ‘RUN, IGIBYS! IF YOU’RE OUT THERE, RUN! THEY’RE COMING!’”
Discussion: What was your favorite excerpt from this week's reading? Post it below!Have you noticed adults treating you differently as you grow up?What book would you want your body found with? Discuss with us in the forum.Activity: Invent a critternose casserole recipe. :-)Andrew news! Andrew's newest album, Resurrection Letters, volume 1, released today! Check it out at the Rabbit Room or anywhere you buy or download music.

BRBC week 9: Stubborn old fool

We've finished the first book! Next week we get to start North! Or Be Eaten together. :-)There were two passages that stood out to me while reading this week, so as an end-of-book bonus (and as a clever bit of cheatery), I'm going to post one excerpt here and another in the forum. ;-) This one I love because of the breathlessness and silence and light.

Janner woke with a start and leapt to his feet. The chamber was completely dark. He thought for a moment that he was in the Black Carriage, that he could still hear the cawing of crows, the remnants of a dark dream clinging to him like cobwebs. Tink’s familiar snore brought him back to the underground chamber. The torch must be spent, he thought—but the Fangs! The hounds! Janner put his ear up to the cold iron door and listened.Silence.No horned hounds howled. No Fang snarled or hissed. All was still.Janner nudged Tink with no success. He groped in the dark and could feel Tink’s figure, curled up and sleeping a few feet from the door.He thought about opening the door without waking the others. He could do it quietly, just to see if the sun had yet risen and whether by some miracle of the Maker the Fangs were gone or at least distracted. He put a sweaty hand on the door handle, hesitated for a moment, and turned it. The click echoed in the room and Janner flinched, afraid he would alert the monsters outside and above.With a deep breath, he pulled on the great door and it creaked open. His eyes had so adjusted to the darkness that the faint light trickling down the tunnel stung. As Janner shielded his eyes, his mouth dropped open at what lay before him.
Discussion: What was the funniest part of the book? What was the saddest? What was the most scary? What was the most wonderful?Was there a part of this book you couldn't stop thinking about? What was it? What does it make you think?
Was there something that happened in the book that you expected, or wished, had happened differently? What do you think would have happened if things had turned out the way you expected?What do you think will happen next?I would LOVE to hear your favorite excerpt from this week's reading—or, this being the last week, from anywhere in On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. Post it below!Activity: Design your own treehouse! What will you include?Bonus conversation: Head over to the forum to talk about the other excerpt Madame Sidler appreciated this week. There have been some other really good conversations in the forum this week, too. You're more than welcome to come poke around.If you'll be joining us for the next book, North! Or Be Eaten, pick up your copy at the Rabbit Room or Amazon!

The stories are true.