I first read Keeper of the Lost Cities on October of 2020, for the Stone Soup Book Club. I had nothing to read, and the book was in my favorite genre: adventure fantasy. I had previously enjoyed many fantasy series: Harry Potter, Wings of Fire, How to Train Your Dragon, Artemis Fowl, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Percy Jackson, of course. Basically, 90% of my personal library is just adventure fantasy. And so I thought, Well, why not? It’s not like anything bad could come of trying out a new fantasy book. Little did I know I was not only right, but I would develop a massive obsession with every aspect of Keeper of the Lost Cities. The protagonist of Keeper of the Lost Cities is a girl named Sophie. At the start of the story, Sophie is an outsider, amazingly smart with a photographic memory, and she has just been invited to Yale University at twelve years old—but she has a secret. Sophie can read minds. She always knew she was strange, but soon finds out that she is an elf in a human world. Another elf, an older boy named Fitz, introduces Sophie to the Elvin world. Sophie has to come to grips with the fact that her human parents and little sister cannot be her real family, because she is an elf. Worse, she must leave her human family and her pet behind when she goes live with the elves. Sophie has many adventures in the scattered estates and cities the elves call The Lost Cities. She finds out more about her powers of telepathy, meets a goblin and lots of gnomes, learns to use a “leaping crystal,” and even fights against kidnappers. Keeper of the Lost Cities is the first book in a series of ten. One odd detail about the numbering of the series is that the tenth book is labeled “Book 9,” because the ninth book is labeled “Book 8.5.” All other books have regular numbers. I have just finished Book 9, and it is a major rollercoaster of emotions, overflowing with revelations that tie into previous books. Every time a question is answered, ten more are raised—but more on that later. I would probably recommend Keeper of the Lost Cities to ten-year-olds and up, because there is plenty of blood, gore, pain, and cruelty. I would not recommend it to people who throw up or have nightmares easily. To be honest, on the outside, you would not think of Keeper of the Lost Cities as much different from any other fantasy book, complete with goblins, trolls, ogres, dwarves, gnomes—and elves, of course. But what makes Keeper of the Lost Cities different from most other fantasy series is its riveting plot. It shows you what you are supposed to think, then says it just in case you missed it, and two chapters later, when you are positive you know what is going on, it reveals that the total opposite is true. Shannon Messenger does not just tell you the story, she makes you feel like you are experiencing it, without holding anything back. Keeper of the Lost Cities is emotional, and jarring, and soothing, and chock-full of sadness, and joy, and anger, and love, and the best part is that when you read the book, you can feel the main character’s emotions as well as sensations. Keeper of the Lost Cities is deep, yet light, and humorous, yet tear-jerking, and this might just be me, but flipping through its pages, lost in the story’s embrace, Keeper of the Lost Cities feels like an old friend, there to comfort me and help me through whatever I’m going through, or just make me laugh, or put a smile on my face. That’s why Keeper of the Lost Cities is my favorite book series of all. Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger. Aladdin Paperbacks, 2013. Buy the book here and help support Stone Soup in the process!
book club
Book Club Report: Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
An update from book club! Today in Stone Soup Book Club, we discussed Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo, a wonderful, whimsical novel about a girl who befriends a squirrel with superpowers! The story is mostly written in prose, and interspersed with illustrated comic sections and poems. When the novel starts out, Flora Belle Buckman describes herself as a ‘cynic,’ meaning someone who is pessimistic and reluctant to hope, probably because her parents have recently divorced and she doesn’t get along very well with her mother. But things change when she sees, in the neighbor’s backyard, a squirrel getting accidentally sucked up in a vacuum cleaner! Flora rushes over to do some squirrel-CPR, and when the squirrel (whom they name Ulysses) wakes up, it turns out he now has superpowers, including super-strength, flight, and the ability to write poetry! Unfortunately, Flora’s mom is not okay with having a squirrel living in the house, and wants to get rid of Ulysses, so Flora has to team up with her gentle father, Mr. Buckman, her poetry-loving next door neighbor, Tootie, Tootie’s temporarily-blind great-nephew William Spiver, and Mr. Buckman’s kind neighbor Dr. Meescham, to rescue Ulysses, so that he can continue helping them. Over the course of the story, Ulysses’ loving friendship makes Flora more hopeful and helps her re-connect with her mom and dad. Everybody who came really enjoyed the book. We started out our discussion by talking about what superpowers we would have if we could choose; answers including turning into animals, talking to animals, flying, etc. Then we really got into discussing the book. We shared our favorite characters and scenes, and discussed how Flora changed over the course of the story. We discussed our theories as to why William Spiver pretends to be temporarily blind; why Flora is jealous of her mother’s prized shepherdess lamp; whether or not Dr. Meescham’s home country of Blundermeecen is supposed to be a real place; what makes somebody a real superhero; what it means to be cynical; and Ulysses’ most awesome moments. After our discussion, it was time for creative writing. We had two prompts: to write a poem from the point of view of our favorite squirrel-poet Ulysses; or to write a scene from the point of view of a different kind of animal, taking into account how that kind of animal would perceive the world. People tried each of the prompts, and it was lovely to see the poems and stories that they wrote! Thank you so much to everyone who has joined Stone Soup book club over the past year. It has been an absolute pleasure getting to read, write, and talk about books together! Unfortunately, book club is going on a hiatus for now, but stay tuned for other Stone Soup classes such as the Writers Workshop, and we’ll reach out if book club starts up again in the future. In the meantime, happy reading and writing! Best wishes, Maya Mahony
Book Club Report: Front Desk by Kelly Yang
An update from book club! Today we discussed Kelly Yang’s award-winning novel Front Desk, which follows Mia Tang, a ten-year-old girl who immigrates to the U.S. from China with her parents, and now helps them run a motel in California. Kelly Yang wrote the novel based on her real childhood experiences. Mia and her family struggle with poverty and their mean boss, Mr. Yao. They also secretly hide other Chinese immigrants who are struggling, letting them stay the night in their motel. Mia has to deal with school, where the kids tease her for being poor and Chinese. Mia loves writing and English, although her mom wants her to focus on math, thinking that, as an immigrant, Mia won’t ever become good at English. Things get a bit better when Mia befriends a girl named Lupe, who understands what she’s going through. Mia also befriends the weeklies, the people who live permanently in the motel, including Hank, a Black man whom Mia helps exonerate from a wrongful accusation of car theft. The story comes to a climax when Mr. Yao wants to sell the motel, and Mia organizes all her new friends to band together to buy it from him. We had a lively discussion of Front Desk. Some students loved the book, and one student didn’t enjoy it because it was sad to read about all the hard things Mia and the other immigrants go through. One person loved the happy ending, while others found it unrealistic that Mia and her friends would be able to get together enough money to purchase the motel. We brainstormed different ways we would end the novel if we were writing it! We also talked about our favorite parts of the book, our favorite characters, and what we thought about Jason, Mr. Yao’s son, who has a real character arc throughout the novel, going from a bully, just like his father, to standing up for what’s right. We discussed Mia’s relationship with her mother and father; Mia’s friendship with Hank; and how lying functions in the story. Mia’s friendship with Lupe improves when they stop lying to each other about their lives; however, Mia uses lying for good when she writes a pretend reference letter for Hank, and a pretend letter from a lawyer for one of the immigrants whose passport was being withheld. People chimed in with their opinions about when it is right and wrong to lie in our own lives. Finally, we finished off with a creative writing activity. We had two prompts to choose from: writing a story about a kid put in charge of their family business for the day; or writing a list of customs and phrases for an imaginary place (like the list Mia writes about the U.S.). It was fun to see what people came up with! We’ll be back next month on November 26th at 9:00am PT to discuss Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo—looking forward to seeing you there! Our Next Book (to be discussed on November 26th): Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
