Tomes & Talismans

Lesson: Overview of a library As humanity prepares its final evacuation to the White Crystal Solar System, librarian Ms. Bookhart desperately searches for the final volume of a book series on Wipers. This volume will complete the knowledge repository being created for others to discover - the last human library.

Lesson: Categories of books; Fiction, Nonfiction, and Biography A century after humanity’s evacuation, the Users study Earth artifacts in search of a defense against the Wipers. They discover books, learning the differences between fiction and nonfiction books as well as how earthlings organized them. In search of more books a group of User children find Ms. Bookhart, placed in suspended animation by the mysterious Universal Being.

Lesson: Sections of a book; Cover, Title page, Copyright page, Table of Contents, Foreword, Preface, Index, Glossary, and Bibliography When they find the underground library in disarray after a Wiper attack, Ms. Bookhart shows the children about the different parts of books so that they can attempt to reconstruct the destroyed texts. Meanwhile, Chief Humbuckler plans to test the Wiper's jammers and magnetic shield on the User base.

Lesson: Finding a certain book through the card catalog based on Title, Subject, or Author of the book Outside the User base, Colonel Holon makes contact over his communicator with the User children in the library, who attempt to use maps and the card catalog to find him a return route that avoids Wiper contact. Meanwhile, as Tesla exhorts her fellow Users that they will respond to the Wiper shield threat with reason and not violence, Humbuckler and the Wipers await the Users' eventual surrender.

Lesson: Grouping books based on the Dewey Decimal system Colonel Holon encounters the Universal Being, who gives him a document. The User children must follow the clues given on the document and discover the means of defeating the Wipers. Meanwhile, when Tesla attempts to contact the children Humbuckler discovers there are Users outside of the dome and tells her that the Wipers will capture them.

Lesson: Finding information through the Encyclopedia As Colonel Holon evades a pursuing Wiper patrol he encounters horses, which frighten the the Wipers away. The User children make headway on deciphering the document's clues and Tesla ponders her options as power and food supplies dwindle inside the User base.