6. Notice how the stories Amariel tells are very different from Ven’s. It’s not just because they come from different places, but because they see the world differently. Would someone from a snowy place and someone from a very hot place have the same difficulty? How hard is it for people who have very little in common to be friends?
7. A number of children in the story—Char, Ida, and Cadwalder—don’t know very much about themselves because they are orphans or abandoned. What would it be like to have no idea where you came from? Or when your birthday is? Or what your real name is?
8. If you had the chance to be the king’s Reporter, would you take it? Where would you go?
Free Curriculum
Available September 2006 at www.venpolypheme.com
A free curriculum with integrated subject areas will be available for download upon publication of the book. The series-specific teachers’ materials are cross-curricular, with customizable exercises and lesson plans in varying degrees of difficulty for different grade levels. Subject areas covered include Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Geography, Science, and Art, with mini-curricula in Nautical Studies, Mythology, Environmental Science, and Music. The curriculum also includes comprehension and discussion questions listed chapter by chapter.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the many archaeologists, anthropologists, language experts, and museum curators who assisted in the restoration of the first of the Ven Polypheme journals, especially:
Dr. Winifred Biggles Frumpton, for sharing her secret recipe for removing sand stains
Mrs. Pickles Butterworth-Smythe, for granting me access to her wonderful collection of Gwadd art
Sir Ambrose Dillwopper, for his kind encouragement
Godric Meanfilly, Esq., for his research into the legalities of reprinting ancient Nain texts
Ms. Susan Persimmon Chang, Project Director, for her exquisite management of the archaeological dig, as well as the publication of these historic findings
Mr. Brett Helquist, for his superior expertise in art preservation, without which all of Ven’s sketches would be nothing more than old, dirty confetti (smelling of stale seaweed)
Dr. Parsifal Booh, documentarian, as well as his wife and her twin sister, cultural researchers Beatrice (Bea) Biddie and Barbara (Barb) Biddie-Booh, Department of Nain Studies, University of Vaarn, Professors Emeritae. As they came out of retirement to consult on this project, I want especially to thank the old Biddies
Betty Senwod, Artist-in-Residence, Lirin Conservatory of Native Art, for her expertise in tribal drawing and rituals—with thanks for bailing me out of jail that time after the Toockus Ruckus ceremony Joe Fish, for, well, whatever he feels he deserves thanking for (there, happy now??)
S. Uther Twaddle, Ph.D., research scientist, Marincaer Maritime Institute
Infamous archaeologist and Site Director Samot E. Snave, for all his inspiration
And you, the reader, for helping to keep the magic of the world alive.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
THE FLOATING ISLAND
Copyright © 2006 by Elizabeth Haydon
Illustrations copyright © 2006 by Brett Helquist
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Endpaper map by Ed Gazsi
A Starscape Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Haydon, Elizabeth.
The floating island / Elizabeth Haydon.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN: 978-1-4299-1243-3
I. Title.
PS3558.A82896 F56 2006
813'.54—dc22
2006005768