Question

Rezumatul cartii 'The girl of ink and stars'

Answer 1

Thirteen-year-old Isabella Riosse, daughter of a cartographer, lives on the island of Joya. The songbirds of Joya were supplanted by ravens when the Governor arrived. Under his strict rule, residents of the coastal town of Gromera are forbidden to travel beyond the forest flanking the village. When a string of unsettling events make it necessary to journey beyond the forest in search of answers, Isabella joins a team of explorers on an adventure that will test her map-making skills and her courage. 

With a young islander as its protagonist, a story steeped in legend, and a wacky chicken gracing the narrative, it’s impossible not to draw a comparison between The Girl of Ink & Stars and Disney’s popular 2016 film, Moana. Unlike Moana, who bravely traverses the open waters, Isabella Riosse’s adventure keeps her land-bound. Rather than take to the waters, she explores black forests, hidden caves, and forgotten cities. Her adventure is conveyed through straightforward, simple writing that’s suitable for the age group of its intended audience. More mature readers will delight in the lyrical descriptions of maps and captivating stories of myth and legend. 

On the opposite wall hung the sketchy coast of Amrica and its dragging ocean currents, labelled with strange, wondrous names [. . .] The paper was dyed a beautiful deep blue, and the currents were picked out in thread against it. Da had used a needle thin as a hair for these – gold for Cerulean, black for the Triangle, white for the Frozen Circle. 

Arinta was a very brave girl. She lived at the centre of Joya a thousand years ago, when it was free to roam the earth and sailed the ocean like a living ship. There was no forested border, no Forgotten Territories, and songbirds sang in every tree. 

Isabella believes the legends of Joya are factual. Her interest in confirming the truth of Joya’s history – namely, that the girl-warrior Arinta really did save the island from a destructive demon – is strengthened by her father’s profession as the island’s only mapmaker. She absorbs his artful profession with the same fervor as dried parchment soaks up ink, learning as much as she can about map-making and reading the stars. Becoming a mapmaker shapes and enriches her character, and a beautiful comparison is accordingly drawn between mapping topography on paper and our lives being mapped on our physical bodies. 

We are all of us products of our surroundings. Each of us carries the map of our lives on our skin, in the way we walk, even in the way we grow.

Isabella’s quality of character is further enhanced by her friendship with the Governor’s daughter, Lupe. Though both girls are quite different in personality, Isabella strives to see the good in her friend and, unlike everyone else in Gromera, refrains from holding her strident father’s actions against her. Their first real disagreement occurs on the cusp of peculiar events disrupting the lives of everyone on Joya, and Lupe goes missing before they can make amends. Though she’s always longed to chart the Forgotten Territories, Isabella’s primary motivation for joining the team of island explorers is to save her best friend. 

Journeying alongside Isabella is her longtime friend Pablo, a stable boy with narrow-minded beliefs about what young women can accomplish. His character acts as the megaphone for the book’s theme of exploring gender roles. To join the expedition, Isabella must disguise herself as a boy. When Pablo discerns her true identity, he questions her ability to join the team: 

‘I should tell them.’ He nodded towards the door. 
I put on my fiercest face. ‘You won’t.’
‘I could.’
‘You’d go in your ma’s place, wouldn’t you?’
‘It’s not the same thing –’
‘It is the same thing, same as you taking her place in the fields.’
He paused a moment. ‘Yes. But I’m a man.’ 
‘You’re a boy. And so what? Girls can go on adventures too.’
‘Have you ever heard of a girl going on an adventure?’ 

Despite societal expectations for her gender, Isabella bravely forges ahead. When evidence surfaces that suggests something sinister is poised to devastate the island, Isabella could run for safety. Instead, she defies presumptions about her gender and delves into the darkest parts of the island, moving toward danger, rather than away from it. At this terrifying turn in her adventure, Isabella’s knowledge of maps and the stars is more important than ever. 

The night was hauntingly clear. The stars revealed their places in constellations and the moon’s pull felt physical on my short hair. Something was happening to the very air we walked through. It was tense, alive and threatening, the island in the grip of forces shifting imperceptibly beneath my feet.