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'Strangeworlds Travel Agency' Book Club: Chapters 10-19
By: Cori Reed Photo By: @lucys.lovely.library
“Don't lose your luggage.” - L.D. Lapinski
Welcome back, travelers, to Day 2 of our book club read-along for OwlCrate Jr's June 2021 book, Strangeworlds Travel Agency by L.D. Lapinski! Are you ready to dive into another suitcase?
Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for Chapters 10 - 19 of Strangeworlds Travel Agency, so make sure you read these chapters before continuing.
Discussion questions are listed below, and anyone who participates in the comments will be entered to win a free OwlCrate Jr box! We’ll be selecting four winners this time around, so make sure you join in for every discussion!
What happens next...
Flick decides she is ready to take the pledge to join the Strangeworlds Society, but when she gets to the travel agency the door is not only locked, but Jonathan is inside sleeping on the floor! After some loud knocking, he let’s her in and excuses himself to freshen up. Putting on tea and wandering around the travel agency while she waits, Flick is drawn to a brown suitcase as if it is calling her! This potentially was a mistake because as soon as she pries it open she falls in! Oops!
The new world she has entered is deathly quiet and still. Definitely creepy! Landing on a sandy beach leading to a completely still body of water, with a small lighthouse behind her, Flick decides on exploring the lighthouse over the weird beach! Inside, the lighthouse seems like it was completely abandoned with family photos on the walls and papers on the desk that Flick isn’t able to read. The photos on the wall depict a family with first two kids, and then just one. Feeling sad, Flick decides it’s time to leave, but not before discovering a workbook that belonged to Daniel Mercator - AKA Jonathan’s dad!
After her return to the travel agency Jonathan isn’t as mad as she anticipated (excellent!). Flick gives him the workbook and inside they find a list of worlds, some with x’s next to their names, that Jonathan’s father made. They take this as a lead to where he may be and Jonathan invites Flick with him to go investigate!
After a week of not being able to escape home, Flick is finally able to get back to the travel agency, and was it ever worth the wait! For her first “official” foray into another world, Jonathan takes her to Coral City - a world in which there is much less gravity and you can bounce off the ground like a trampoline! After some play time, Flick and Jonathan head to a confectioner in the city, where Jonathan's dad used to frequent. Though they don’t learn much, the lady running the shop does tell them that a man who enquired about his favorite candy ran from the shop when he found out it was out of stock!
Having found no leads in Coral City, our adventurers next head to Tam’s Forest - a small world in which children don’t grow older! Upon arrival Flick and Jonathan are immediately trapped in a net by Tam and his friends. They’re able to convince him to set them free, but they reveal they set up the net in the first place because a man with a gun used to come and shoot all the animals. At dinner Tam declares that Flick and Jonathan are there to stay forever, but not if Flick has anything to do with it! To create a distraction Flick starts a food fight and she and Jonathan run off and jump back through the suitcase. Phew!Back in our world Jonathan is feeling guilty about lying to Flick. We flash back to four years earlier when Jonathan first discovered what the Strangeworlds Travel Agency actually was, and the tragic moment that lead to this discovery.
Well that was a sad ending to this section of the readalong! I can't wait to see where our heroes travel to next!
Questions:
- Who do you think the strange man with the gun was in Tam's Forest? Why do you think he stopped coming?
- If you could make up your very own world, what would it look like?
- Do you have any theories of about who the family in the pictures in the lighthouse was, or why Jonathan's dad left his workbook there?
- Why do you think the weather at Mount Fission (where the buzzberries for Jonathan's dad's favorite candy used to grow!) has gone all topsy-turvy?
See you again on Friday as we discuss Chapters 20 - 30!
