Plot
This is the country where Ilinca moves to live with her grandparents
What is Romania?
Ilinca primarily lives with these family members in Romania.
Who are her grandparents?
The story begins when this building burns down.
What is the town library?
This character is obsessed with reading and books.
Who is Evan?
Both novels involve secrets connected to this.
What is the past?
This mysterious group of women protects ancient stories and traditions.
Who are the Strigoi / story-keepers?
Ilinca’s grandmother plays this important role in preserving stories.
What is a guardian of stories / storyteller?
These two characters discover something suspicious after the fire.
Who are Evan and Rafe?
Rafe is known for being more this than Evan.
What is athletic / less book-focused?
Books and stories symbolize this in both novels.
What is power and truth?
Ilinca discovers that certain stories must be spoken carefully because they have this power.
What is the power to bring danger or truth to life?
The village setting is important because it represents this idea.
What is tradition and cultural memory?
The boys find that the returned library books have this unusual trait.
What is they are overdue and mysterious?
The town setting helps create this type of mood.
What is mysterious and curious?
Both main characters learn that stories should be treated with this.
What is respect?
This major event from Romania’s past deeply affects Ilinca’s family history.
What is World War II / the Holocaust?
Ilinca changes from feeling disconnected to feeling this by the end of the novel.
What is a sense of belonging?
The mystery connects back to a librarian who disappeared years earlier.
Who is Mortimer H. Bean?
The librarian’s role symbolizes this idea.
What is the importance of knowledge and access to books?
Silence in both novels represents this danger.
What is losing history or truth?
Ilinca’s greatest challenge is deciding whether to do this with her family’s hidden story.
What is tell the truth despite the danger?
This emotion most often motivates the characters to stay silent.
What is fear?
The biggest mystery in the novel is uncovering the truth about this.
What is what really happened to the librarian and the books?
The boys’ friendship is strengthened by their shared experience of this.
What is solving a mystery together?
Both novels ultimately suggest this message about stories.
What is stories matter and deserve to be remembered?