Each card starts with how the character appears in the picture book, then who they are in the novel.
Spreads Tap a number to open that spread in the book. 5 in the picture 2 named in the text only
ElementsIn the novel, people hold one or more of eight elements, each with its own colour. The tag under each name gives a character’s elements.
Spirit side
Spirit meaning and feeling, what everything is made of
Blood kin, the body, memory; it heals
Light telling one thing from another; truth
Fire change, making a thing into something else
Flesh side
Sound the word, being heard
Water passage and carrying, where you are going
Time duration, the hour, the record
Iron edge, endurance, what lasts
River, Storm and Grove are spirits, living forms of an element. In the picture book they are on the page, everyone in the village can see them, and they speak only Ịzọn. The element colours are background from the novel and a key, not art direction; the picture book never names the elements.
The family
Tari
17 → 33 in the novel · Spirit + Sound
Draw: About 8. A city boy: school shorts, trainers, a backpack he doesn’t put down at first. Watchful, quiet, bright-eyed. By the end: barefoot and laughing.
Talks to anyone, beautifully, and never for himself. He tells everything as news, covers with jokes and shrugs, and lets the real question die behind his teeth. People listen to him and understand him, yet he can’t hear them. He takes whatever is offered, gladly, and can’t put a want into words. His one request in life is “teach me.”
Draw: Mama: gentle, city-dressed, appears once (spread 2). Dada is named, never seen.
Mama is a lawyer, passionate for justice: the Exposer, who reveals what is wrong and demands it change. She sent her only son away so she could fight the family’s enemy alone. She spoke Ịzọn to him only in corners. Dada is the funniest man in any room and always half out the door, shifting from foot to foot, saying time waits for no man. When he caught her speaking Ịzọn to the boy, he said, mildly, “You’ll spoil his English.”
Draw: Grandmother-aged. Very upright, proud, few words, wrapper and headtie, strong hands. Stern on the outside; we should feel the warmth under it without her smiling much.
Never says a soft sentence; she answers with a fact and closes it. Stern, ungentle, proud, and never once seen to ask anybody for anything. She reads a face and doesn’t ask, walks slowly, and lies only out of love, and briefly. Her care is in her hands: she can close a wound with her thumb and would be insulted if you made anything of it.
Draw: 6. Arms folded, strong-headed, quick to correct. Fierce and fair. Younger than Tari and not afraid of him.
Proud, generous, ungentle, and nearly always right, which nearly never helps. She rations her words, says exactly what’s wrong, and has decided to need nothing from anybody where anyone can see. Refused, she comes back, and keeps coming back.
Draw: 3. Round, giggly, thumb in her mouth at first; goes through his pockets.
Fearless, nosy and curious; she’ll try anything and can’t leave a thing alone. She’s the only one in the house who says plainly what she sees, and she looks at people as though she expected more of them. She laughs easily and often.
Draw: Boys diving off the jetty and daring Tari to jump (spread 9); he drops his bag and jumps in with them for the first time. On spread 11 they laugh at his wrong word: not cruel, but it stings.
Rough, quick and loud, all jokes and dares. They teach Tari to catch fish. Zini’s way of talking is the one Tari keeps to the very end. Timi stays on the creek and fishes.
the spirit of the little tree · a member of the compound
Draw: A tiny green face in the bark of Tari’s stick, sleepy at first (spread 6). It wakes and grows with the tree, from a green stick to a small tree taller than Tari (spread 14). Bent almost flat in the rain on spread 13, but it holds on. It always leans toward the light.
More one of the family than a plant. It eats the sun, carries the family line, laughs, and calls Tari brother.
the spirit of wind and rain, the presence of Sound
Draw: A big grey-silver gust with a friendly face, tugging at clothes and hats. Treats Tari like an old friend from the boat onward (spread 3). Huge in the first rain on spread 13, together with River, but never frightening.
Loud, sudden and all at once. It calls things to it: lightning, thunder, everybody’s attention. Big, but never cruel.
the spirit of water and rain, the presence of Water
Draw: A playful face and body made of tea-brown creek water, ripples for hair, always splashing. Curious about Tari from the first page (spread 3); tosses the diving boys back up (spread 9); laughs at his wrong word (spread 11); sings in the rain (spread 13). Never scary.
Patient and carrying. It takes you where you are going and turns where it turns. When you speak to it, who answers is the river’s business.