In this long-awaited sequel to "The Lost Children" (Simon & Schuster 2010) con-artist and tough-girl Ida Dorrington journeys to the Unfinished City to find a cure for her inability to age. Stuck in the body of a twelve-year-old, Ida longs to look and feel her true age of sixteen. The Unfinished City is the weirdest place Ida has ever visitedâon the same day, every year, a flood destroys the whole town, and odder still, the citizens look forward to it! To Idaâs dismay, no one in the Unfinished City wants to explain the mysterious Treatment that could be Idaâs remedy. Ida begs, borrows, and steals to get what she wants. Will she be able to set her age right and return to her friends Fargus and Josephine before her scheming and lies catch up with her?
In this long-awaited sequel to "The Lost Children" (Simon & Schuster 2010) con-artist and tough-girl Ida Dorrington journeys to the Unfinished City to find a cure for her inability to age. Stuck in the body of a twelve-year-old, Ida longs to look and feel her true age of sixteen. The Unfinished City is the weirdest place Ida has ever visitedâon the same day, every year, a flood destroys the whole town, and odder still, the citizens look forward to it! To Idaâs dismay, no one in the Unfinished City wants to explain the mysterious Treatment that could be Idaâs remedy. Ida begs, borrows, and steals to get what she wants. Will she be able to set her age right and return to her friends Fargus and Josephine before her scheming and lies catch up with her?
When the door to the tavern opened, the miners put down their drinks and stared. Standing alone in the doorway was a child who looked to be around eleven or twelve years old. She wore a sweet frilly dress with a green bow carefully tied at the waist. Her emerald eyes and enormous eyelashes were framed by tight black curls.Â
Without a word, she walked into the pub. Several patrons kept watching the door, expecting a parent to follow, but none did.
Not many strangers passed through this part of the land. Lollup was a rough mining town whose beauty could only be found three miles below ground. Its chief export, the Honey Stone, provided fuel for most of the country, but coaxing it out of the hard clay that lay underneath the mountains was brutal work. In Lollup, days were long and lives were short. Few dared to enter such a mountain community.
The strange girl walked confidently toward the bar, causing several large men to make way for her. She carried a worn leather bag that was incongruous with her pristine patent leather shoes. She found an empty stool and, not without effort, hoisted herself upon its wobbly seat. Silence still filled the sticky air. The bartender, Harry Ickman, watched her closely, assuming that a customerâs wife had sent this child to fetch a husband for dinner, but she was looking at him expectantly, and he realized that she wanted to be served. âYes, ah, miss. What can I get you? A glass of milk?â
She smiled. âStrawberry juice, please.â
Harry uncorked a large bottle, poured a glass, and placed it on the bar. Taking a long, slow sip of her drink, the girl spun on her stool and surveyed the rest of the tavern. She studied the tired faces of the miners, still sooty from their day in the mine, until her eyes came to rest on a group of men sitting at a table in the corner.
âOooh, cards!â she chirped, jumping off her stool and almost spilling strawberry juice down her dress. She approached the men, who were so engrossed in their game that they hadnât noticed her entrance.
She looked over the shoulder of a wide man with oversized sideburns. Squinting at his cards, she declared loudly, âI wouldnât play that if I were you. I would go with the ten.â
The men burst into laughter, and the one with the sideburns turned to glare at her. âMind your business, ya brat!âÂ
A man with ashy skin and a beard said, âMaybe you should listen to her, Yusef. You havenât won a hand all night.â The other men chuckled.
Scoffing at them, Yusef played the card he'd originally intended: a seven.Â
The player to his left was called Tippo, who was known for his poor mining skills and taste for uncooked rabbit. Sneering, Tippo played an eight, placed his dirty thumb on the seven, and dragged it toward himself. âThat would be a dead manâs lock, my friend. Youâre out.â
Cursing, Yusef handed Tippo a gold coin.
Tippo then turned to the girl and asked, âWho taught ya to play âBlack Thumbâ little girl? Yer daddy?â
âOh no,â the girl said sweetly. âItâs a kids' game. I just learned from watching.â
âHo ho,â Tippo guffawed. âDid you hear that, Yusef? Itâs a kids' game!â He had eyes like a weasel's.
âIâd like to see her play you,â Yusef said bitterly, standing to go to the bar.
âIâd love to!â Before anyone knew what was happening, the girl was sitting in Yusefâs empty chair.
âUh, wait a minute, young lady,â Tippo said. âThis here is an adult game. Weâre playinâ for gold.â
âOh. How embarrassing." She held up her leather bag and shook it, and the sound lit up the menâs eyes. âI only have twenty coins. Is that enough?â
Twenty coins was more than any of the miners made in a week. Tippo winked at the two other men sitting at the table. âTwenty coins is just about the perfect amount,â he told her. âItâs Reginaldâs deal. One-eyed jacks are wild.â
Gulping down the rest of her juice, the girl belched loudly. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. âFun!â
Reginald shuffled the cards slowly, not sure how he felt about gambling with a child, but twenty coins! Imagine how happy his wife would be if he came home with that! âAnte up,â he announced, and everyone, including the girl, put two coins in the center of the table. Reginald dealt at lightning speed.
The girl looked at her cards and then waited for the man to her right to begin. He was older and seemed to have difficulty seeing his cards. Finally, he threw down the four of hearts. Smiling sweetly, the girl threw down the three of hearts. Then Tippo and Reginald put down the seven and ten. Reginald won the hand.Â
He dealt again, but before anyone could pick up their cards, Tippo said, âI raise the pot five coins."
The old man put down all his cards. âI fold!â
The girl looked confused. âSo . . . if I lose this game, Iâm going to lose my two coins plus another five coins?â
Tippo knew he had to handle this just right. âYes, darlinâ. But if you win, youâre goinâ to get seven brand new shiny coins!â
The girlâs eyes widened. âSeven coins! Golly, that's a lotta peppermint sticks!â She added five more coins, and so did Reginald, who appeared nervous. Tippo grinned.
Everyone looked at their new cards. The girl frowned, and Tippo could feel his heart racing. She put down a two of clubs. Tippo couldnât believe it. The silly child had just led with the lowest card there was! He put a queen of clubs on the table, trying to suppress his giddiness.
Reginald scowled, âIâm out.â He put his cards face down on the table.
Reginald put his thumb on the jack and queen, adding them to his pile.Â
Tippo smiled at the girl. âLookinâ like itâs just you and me.â
A crowd had gathered, curious to see how the girl would do.Â
Tippo signaled to Reginald to deal the last hand. When Tippo picked up his cards he kept a straight face, but inside he was dancing. He now had two red aces, two red kings, and a wild card. It was a âRed Thumb.â He tried to read the girl's face. She looked befuddled.Â
There was no way he could lose.Â
Looking more at his audience than at her, he said, âI raise you thirteen coins.âÂ
The crowd gasped. It was an unheard-of amount to gamble, let alone win from a child.Â
The girl stayed steady. âOkey-dokey." Without batting an eye, she placed her entire satchel of money in the middle of the table.Â
Fifty-eight coins, almost a monthâs wages, was now at stake. Everyone held their breath.
Smirking, Tippo placed all his cards on the table. âRed Thumb!â Clapping his hands, he whooped with delight. He was reaching for the money pot when the girl said innocently, âDonât I get to show everybody my cards?â
âOf course you do, sweetheart. You go right ahead,â he said.
The girl placed her cards on the table. She had two black aces, two black kings, and one black jack. It was a âBlack Thumbâ with no wild cardsââthe highest hand you could get. Tippoâs jaw fell open. The odds of the girl getting that hand were . . . were . . . Tippo sank in his chair as he realized how much money he'd just lost.
The people in the bar laughed and clapped, happy to see the little girl beat Tippo, who'd won money from almost everyone in Lollup.Â
Leaning forward, the girl scooped money into her bag. âThis was so exciting! I canât wait to teach my brothers and sisters!â Standing, she put the bag over her shoulder, the weight of it making her lopsided. âI have to go meet my mother now. Sheâs visiting my aunt and sheâll be worried about me.â Before anyone knew what was happening, the girl had scurried to the entrance.
As she opened the door, she turned back to the bar. âThank you, gentlemen. It was a pleasure. And please donât use this evening as an excuse to teach your children to gamble. Gambling with children is wrong.â She smiled wickedly and was gone.
Tippo finally came out of his state of shock. He jumped up from his seat and ran after her, sure that the girl had swindled him, even if he couldnât explain how. When he got outside, she was nowhere to be seen. She'd disappeared as mysteriously as she'd arrived.
Shaking his head, Tippo returned inside to a roomful of men laughing at him. He said loudly, âTell yâall what. I promise to buy yâall a round a drinks, and yâall promise to never talk about this here little incident ever again.â
The men just laughed harder.
"Ida and the Unfinished City", is an amazing sequel to the "Lost Children". It was worth waiting for ten years, for this book to be published.
Ida is stuck in her twelve-year-old body when she is in reality a sixteen-year-old smart, mature, brave, driven, and determined girl. She travels to her childhood home, an orphanage, and finds it in ruins. And thus, the adventure begins as she journeys to the Unfinished City to find a cure for herself.
The book will pull you in from the prologue itself; which introduces us to the weird and unfathomable tradition of the Unfinished City, where the villagers eagerly wait every single day for the ocean waves to destroy their homes. And then they rebuild it again for the ocean to destroy it the next day. Furthermore, the opening scene of the story will immediately make you fall in love with Ida and her sassiness.
Ida is a lovely character to get to know. Her character is not flawless by any means. She is full of snarky comments, great comebacks, frustration, anger, and hoards of teenage angst. In this story, which has fantastical elements, with a slight feel of sci-fi, along with an element of mystery, Carolyn Cohagan makes the readers feel right at home. It was fun to watch a character as relatable as Ida, to discover the importance of forging friendships and learning how to be happy in one's own skin.
Her character growth throughout the story was remarkable.
Interestingly, Cohagan has succeeded in incorporating innumerable hard topics and lightly touching on them without changing the fun tone of the story. Topics such as sexism, avariciousness, the importance of communication, etc have been discussed without changing the pace or the main focus of the story.
Wonderfully crafted, fast-paced, and full of the very feeling of a "story", I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although the intended audience is very young, I couldn't put this book down. If you are looking for a fast-paced, quick read, and a variety of characters - this book is perfect for you to invest your time in.