42 pages • 1 hour read
Erin Entrada KellyLalani of the Distant Sea
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Prologue-Chapter 16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue-Chapter 5 Summary
This summary section includes “Prologue,” “Chapter 1: Three of Them,” “Chapter 2: House of Light,” “Chapter 3: Girl on the Rocks,” “Chapter 4: House of Shadows,” and “Chapter 5: You Are Where the Binty Sing.”
In a mythical land, there are two islands. Each one contains a mountain. Mount Kahna is thought to be a source of woe by the Sanlagitan people who live in its shadow. They all long to travel to Mount Isa, where good fortune resides. The people send one expedition after another in search of Isa, but the mariners never return.
Twelve-year-old Lalani Sarita lives on the island of Sanlagita. She enjoys spending the night at the home of her best friend, Veyda Yuzi, where Veyda’s mother, Lo, tells folk tales. Veyda’s younger brother, Hetsbi, is often frightened by these stories, but he listens anyway. Tonight, Lo is telling them about the evil Mount Kahna that wants to kill anyone who approaches it. There is a terrible creature that roams its hills, seeking to steal the eyes of its prey.
Later that evening, Hetsbi says that some of the local girls found strands of Ziva’s hair on the rocks by the shore. Ziva was a girl who tried to stow aboard a ship bound for Isa on Sailing Day, the annual event in which the bravest and strongest men are sent in search of Isa. Ziva was discovered by the sailors and drowned. Now, she haunts the island. The girls dismiss the story and focus on a neighbor baby named Toppi, who is sick. Veyda wants to brew medicine for him, but all the plants on the island are dying because of a drought.
Lalani unwillingly returns to her own home the following morning. Her father and brother died during a previous expedition in search of Isa. Now, Lalani’s brutish uncle, Drum, and his oafish son, Kul, have moved in. The village headman, the menyoro, arranged a marriage between Lalani’s mother and her brother-in-law. Everyone obeys the menyoro, who assigns work and rations food to all the islanders.
Lalani’s mother toils as a mender, stitching torn clothing and fishing nets. This is a dangerous occupation because a single scratch from a needle can result in death from mender’s disease. The only cure is a legendary flower that grows on Mount Isa. Lalani asks if her mother knows any stories like Lo Yuzi. She can only recall one about the binty, a bird that is considered useless on Sanlagita but supposedly sings beautifully on Isa.
Chapters 6-16 Summary
This summary section includes “Chapter 6: Pardon Me,” “Chapter 7: The Loomers,” “Chapter 8: Valiant Hetsbi,” “Chapter 9: Mouthful of Yoonfish,” “Chapter 10: You Are Sanlagitan,” “Chapter 11: Hearts of Clouds and Rock,” “Chapter 12: Through,” “Chapter 13: Shifty,” “Chapter 14: You Are the Weeping Loset,” “Chapter 15: Then They Strike,” and “Chapter 16: Eyes.”
As Lalani walks through the village to deliver the mending her mother has completed, she is struck by how hard everyone works—especially the women, who are treated with contempt. Only young boys are allowed to go to school, while the older boys are assigned to a trade depending on their aptitude. Unfortunately, Hetsbi isn’t good at anything. He fails at sailing, shipbuilding, and fishing. The strongest, toughest men are usually sailors, and they receive the most respect.
The next night, Lalani and Veyda go to visit Toppi’s family, but the little boy is no better. Nevertheless, Toppi’s father, Maddux, thanks the girl for trying to help. Everyone is suffering from the drought, and the menyoro is now rationing water to the villagers. Veyda still can’t find the plants she needs to make the child’s medicine. Lalani proposes to go up the mountain to find more plants, but Veyda is afraid. She reminds Lalani of the legend of a monster who steals eyes.
The following morning, Lalani returns home to find that her mother has injured her hand while stitching. Lalani is frightened of mender’s disease but tries to tell herself that everything will be fine. It takes 10 days for the disease to become fatal, and some people never get it. Lalani walks to the house of Bosalene to pick up her mother’s thread rations. While waiting for her supplies, Lalani goes into the shek pen. Shek are goatlike creatures, and Lalani has christened her favorite My-Shek. She confides her woes about her mother’s injuries to the animal. Lost in her own thoughts, Lalani doesn’t realize at first that the other shek have nosed open the latch to their gate and wandered up the mountain in search of water.
Intending to herd the animals back home, Lalani follows. She finds a shallow stream to cool her thirst and gathers healthy plants nearby for Veyda. By now, the sun is setting, and Lalani has gotten lost in the woods, where she is suddenly snatched by a pair of hands.
Lalani finds herself on the mountainside in a hut that is owned by an old man named Ellseth who can’t see. He has horns on top of his head, and he claims to have saved Lalani from the beast that prowls the mountain. The man comes from Isa and was banished to Sanlagita for his crimes. He proceeds to tell Lalani his story.
Prologue-Chapter 16 Analysis
The book’s initial segment begins by emphasizing The Duality of Life. This principle is embodied in the two islands—one a place of bountiful good fortune and the other a place of bleak toil. The Prologue ends by explaining that the Sanlagitans expend great effort to reach the other island: “They attempt journey after journey. They are pushed by their faith, not knowing that they believe in the wrong things” (2). This cryptic message is illustrated in the early chapters that describe the intense labor of the people living on the islands. They believe that physical strength is the way to conquer obstacles and survive. As a result, they glorify men because of their physical bulk and diminish the value of women because they are smaller.
The reader soon comes to understand the unpleasant ramifications of being small in Sanlagita through the experience of a 12-year-old girl. Lalani and her friends aren’t allowed to go to school because they are not valued like boys, who will grow into men. Boys are taught trades such as shipbuilding, fishing, or sailing, while girls merely perform monotonous daily chores.
While these examples relate to the theme of The Power in Smallness, they illustrate the antithesis of that concept. The biggest, most brutish men receive the best treatment. Drum gets respect because of his physical size and bullying attitude. His son Kul is the same; he enjoys instilling fear into the smaller children by telling them ghost stories. When Drum’s younger brother dies at sea, he appropriates his wife, family, and home.
This authoritarian behavior in Lalani’s household mirrors the larger problem of a village where all power is vested in a single man—the menyoro. He is arrogant and claims talents and skills that he doesn’t possess. For example, the menyoro says he has healing powers, but he has never cured anyone, while Veyda’s knowledge of medicinal plants allows her to make a positive difference in healing her neighbors. However, her skills must be hidden because they come from a girl and challenge the authority of the menyoro.
Concerted efforts are made to belittle the women of the community. Drum frequently refers to his wife and stepdaughter as “useless.” The culture as a whole discourages female initiative. When a girl named Ziva hides in a ship bound for Isa, the sailors are enraged and throw her overboard. Even after her death, she is vilified as an evil ghost who haunts the island.
Having absorbed such damaging messages from her culture, Lalani comes to see herself as small and powerless. Even so, she tries to help Veyda gather medicinal plants to cure a sick baby. The boy’s father is grateful for the attempts to help his son. Maddux compliments Lalani, but her sense of self-worth has been so eroded that she secretly denies her right to his approval:
As Maddux walked away, Lalani felt a stitch of guilt in her gut. He’d said—twice—that she was kind. But she’d wished harm on her uncle moments ago. If Maddux knew, would he still think she was a kind girl? Probably not, she thought (25).
While women and girls suffer the most from the distorted values of their culture, small boys who don’t fit the norm are also devalued. Veyda’s younger brother, Hetsbi, is timid by nature, and he is easily frightened by his mother’s folk tales. As a result, he is also treated as useless by the male population of the island.
In the midst of all this negativity, Lalani asserts her true nature and The Virtue of Compassion. When Veyda can’t find the medicinal plants she needs, Lalani searches for them on the mountainside. Even though she has been warned that an evil creature lurks in the hills, Lalani conquers her own fears because of her desire to help others. Here, and at many future points, her compassion will seem to lead to her undoing. Again, we find a reversal that seems to deny that compassion is beneficial.
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By Erin Entrada Kelly
