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!
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My quote this week has made me laugh every time I have read this book. From the beginning of chapter 3.
Janner’s and Tink’s excitement had evaporated.
Boys sometimes forget that before one leaves on an adventure, if at all possible, one must pack. There are situations in which packing is secondary- such as escaping a burning building- but if there is time to plan and arrange and discuss before leaving, then it is a fact of life that grownups will do so. When children say it’s time to leave, they mean, “It’s time to leave.” When grownups say so, they really mean “It’s time to begin thinking about leaving sometime in the near future.”
Ha—I love this, too. It’s definitely important to forgo packing if the building you’re in is on fire.
I should agree, but I have actually “packed” in what could have been a burning building. When I was in college we had to leave the dorm a LOT because someone tried to light a candle and set off the alarms. We would all be stuck outside waiting until the fire department cleared the whole building room by room and found out there was no real fire (and the candle was located presumably). Losing hours of study time every time this happened really started to get to me, so I started taking the minute or so it took to throw some of my books into my backpack on the way out so I could at least get some homework done while we were all locked out of the dorm. If I had ever smelled smoke though, I don’t think I would have been as slow.
Here is my quote for the week. First, I love that Podo is now accepting Peet as part of the group. But more than that, I picked it because Peet makes me laugh. The internal darkness he wrestles with is really dark, but his childlike enthusiasm is so fun and unexpected.
Chapter 1 The Lone Fendril
Nia opened her eyes and spoke. “Papa, there’s nothing for us to do now but find our way north. We don’t need to go across the sea. We don’t need to go back to Anniera. We don’t need to go to the Green Hollows. We need to go north, away from the Fangs. That’s all. Let’s get these children safely to the prairies, and we’ll finish this discussion then.”
Podo sighed. “Aye, lass. Gettin’ there will cause enough troubles of its own.” He fixed an eye on Peet, who stood on his head in the corner. “I suppose you’ll be comin’ with us, then?”
Peet gasped and tumbled to the floor, then lept to his feet and saluted Podo. Leeli giggled.
“Aye sir,” he said, mimicking Podo’s raspy growl. “I’m ready to go when the Featherwigs are ready. Even know how to get to the Icy Prairies. Been there before, long time ago- not much to see but ice and prairies and ice all white and blinding and cold. It’s very cold there. Icy.” Peet took a deep, happy breath and clapped his socked hands together. “All right! We’re off!”
I love that Peet is mimicking Podo in this scene. He’s so eager to be accepted.