Out of My Book is a television series concerning eight book characters who are marooned on an island called Eithiola. In the exposition of the show, which is about two or three episodes long, the main characters are introduced. Ava, Sophie, Prairie Evers, and Ivy are all from Earth and do not believe in magical occurrences. However, Sophie Foster, Fitz Vacker, Jeremy Thatcher, and Mary Lou Hutton have experienced the effects of magic and believe in its power. When the characters arrive, they are all spread throughout the island.
Ava, Prairie Evers, and Ivy are on the southern end of the island while Sophie, Jeremy Thatcher, and Mary Lou Hutton arrive on the northern end. In the rising action, Jeremy Thatcher and Mary Lou Hutton explain to Sophie about the existence of magic. She chooses to believe them and they begin planning on exploring the island. Unaware of the other group’s presence, Ava, Prairie, and Ivy quickly find each other and decide to begin by building a shelter. Each group finds and teams up with natives on their side of the island.
Unfortunately, they befriend opposing tribes. Soon, the two groups discover each other’s existence. When Ava sees Sophie, who has befriended Jeremy and Mary, a fear that Sophie has changed and is no longer interested their friendship begins to grow within her. At the same time, Sophie becomes suspicious of Ava’s new friends. They both turn to their other friends instead of each other and indirectly cause a rivalry between the two groups. The northern group builds up a civilization that is designed to defend them from the others. They are driven by fear.
On the other hand, the southern group, lead by Sophie’s misguided beliefs, begins to plan an attack on the northerners as they build a strong civilization. At the breaking point (climax), Sophie Foster and Fitz Vacker arrive on opposite sides of the island (Sophie F. in the north, Fitz in the South). They both listen to the group’s opinions and start to puzzle out what is going on. At the moment when the groups are about to go to war with each other, Sophie Foster and Fitz discover that they are residing on opposite sides of the island and work together to bring the civilizations together.
Only when the groups finally come together do they manage to create a true civilization, but they still haven’t found their way back to their own books. Out of My Book is a television series that brings separate characters out of their comfort zones and into a realistic situation without a fairy tale ending. There is not much time to build complex cities on the island, but two main capitals are built alongside native settlements. The main cities are called Mithia and Lyrial. Mithia, in the south, has more advanced government and religious organization.
Lyrial, which is in the north, has more art and specialization without as many political issues as well as more public works. In both cities, the three characters work with the natives to their own ends. Government is very important to everybody who lands on the island, so they are soon established. In Mithia, there is a government that is based on equality. Prairie, Ivy, and Ava treat the natives with the respect they deserve and are, in turn, treated the same way. By working with them, they establish a government that makes choices based on a vote.
First, the public holds a discussion on the topic in order for all views to be clarified. Then, to hold this vote, each member of the city places a stone in a pile that represents one of the options. On the other hand, in Lyrial, Sophie controls most of the decisions, using advisors to help with important decisions. Neither city government makes a decision alone. As for religion, the people of the cities come from their own families with their own religions. Over time, and probably as a result of their relationship with the natives, they begin to worship weather and nature deities.
They make offerings, complete ceremonies, and try all they can to please their deities. In the opinions of the people, they might be able to persuade the weather and nature gods to create more pleasurable conditions on Eithiola if they make proper offerings and show respect to the island. The religion is more developed in Lyrial. Because of the small amounts of people, each person works multiple jobs. In Mithia, the jobs include fishing, creating tools/supplies, documenting the time/events there, and building.
The lake provides an abundant supply of fish, but nets have to be made, as do boats. Other food has to be collected as well, so people take turns exploring and searching for other food sources (wild growing fruit and vegetables, grains, et cetera). In Lyrial, on the other hand, most efforts are focused on building and finding food because they do not have a lake to provide it. They do not focus on recording events, but try to figure out ways to escape the island. When they have spare time, they send out people to explore the island.
Both groups have few people attempting to carry out many jobs when attempting to explore the island or find ways back home. In both settlements, there is an order of rank. In the case of the newcomers to the island, or the book characters, the person at the top is the person who is boldest, bravest, or bossiest. In Mithia, this is Sophie, and in Lyrial, this person is Prairie. Then come those who do the most important jobs, such as craftswomen/men and explorers. At the bottom of the chain is the person who finds/grows food, even though this job could be considered most important of all.
In Lyrial, Ava, after finding her inner voice, is the explorer, while Ivy, since she is so shy and quiet, spends most of her efforts finding/ cultivating food. In Mithia, Jeremy explores and Mary Lou hutton fishes. In this situation, however, the natives have their own social classes, with the leader at the top, then priests, then scribes, then workers, and finally farmers. The jobs and social classes are impacted by their surroundings. Writing in these growing civilizations is mostly English, since most of the people are from the U. S. nd Sophie Foster and Fitz speak english as well.
However, finding writing utensils and material to write on can be very difficult for the people. Mostly they use leaves, bark, and stones that leave colored marks. These things are collected by the explorers, although writing is not valued as much there as it is in our society. This writing eventually begins evolving, and the people develop new slang words. Writing does appear in some of their arts and carved into some buildings. Also, the natives have their own written language that is incomprehensible to the book characters.
As hard as they may try, it is difficult to get the meaning of each other’s phrases across. The arts and architecture in both places are similar. They use logs to build squarish houses, and try their best to make the architecture look like it did at their houses. The main goal of their architecture is to create sturdy, balanced and stable structures. The arts differ some, as every artist has a different view, but most arts have to do with nature or religion. A few of the pieces of art that are created have to do with their homes.
The islanders do not have much time to create art, other than the art already created by the islanders, and, in their opinions, it is unnecessary. Public works are important because everybody has common needs. Clean water is filtered as a group, and food is available to all. So are shelters, some education, and religious places. To create these places, the people have to work together. The leaders mostly make sure the works are created, but the others have to make sure they stay in order. These works show their humanity and the way that they care for each other.