This is Jack Merridew. He crash landed on an island with other boys. "I want to be the leader!" said Jack Merridew. 

    "Nuh uh, they voted for me," Ralph replied, "Go hunt for dinner with your pals."

Exposition

   Angry, Jack stormed off to explore the island on his own. 

   He crawled into a cave and found a sparkling book. Hey, I thought this island was supposed to be abandoned, he thought.

Exposition

    This is Cassius. He never liked Caesar, but when Caesar was about to become the ruler of Rome, he was furious. He believed that if Caesar ruled, he would become evil with power. He watched as Caesar left the room with his trail of admirers. I can't let this happen! Cassius thought. 

    He started to come up with a plan. He would gather all of his friends to help defeat Caesar!

Exposition

    After inviting some friends to join his plot against the future emperor, an odd book caught his eye. He was curious so he decided to bring it home.

Exposition

    This is Guy Montag. He is a firefighter, but instead of putting out fires, he starts them. Every day, he burns hundreds of books at his job in order to protect people from the knowledge they contained. 

    He lives with his distracted wife, Mildred. No matter what, he could never get her to listen to him. It made him mad, so he decided to start ignoring her to avoid frequent fights.

Exposition

    He waited for Mildred to fall asleep before turning his attention to something he had brought home, a book. What could it contain? What knowledge could have been so dangerous, he was ordered to destroy on sight? He flipped open the pages and took a look.

Exposition

Conflict Introduced

   After reading the books, the three were tossed into a portal!

    The three landed in front of an ancient temple. "Where am I? Who are you all?" Jack asked as he sat up.

    "I am Cassius. I was reading a book when I was brought here," Cassius answered.

    "The name's Montag," the firefighter said, "I got into this whole mess from stealing a book.."

    Jack rubbed his eyes. Great. I'm stuck here with a fireman and a statue, he thought.

Conflict Introduced

     "Let's explore the weird lookin' temple," Jack suggested, "beats sitting around waiting for rescue."

    The fireman and the statue agreed and followed the boy up the steps.

Conflict Introduced

    They found themselves in a huge library containing books from all throughout history. "This is the largest library I have ever seen!" Montag exclaimed, "Let's look through the books to see if there's a way out of here." 

    Cassius picked up a book about Buddhism.

Conflict Introduced

    The three were brought to a room where a robed man sat in the middle. "I am the Enlightened One, but you can call me the Buddha," he introduced himself. 

    "Hi Buddha, do you know how we can get back home?" Jack asked. 

    "I know not, but I know of the Eightfold Path," said the Buddha.

Rising Action

    "What's that?" asked Montag.

    "The Eightfold Path has eight steps to knowledge," the Buddha said, "these are Right View, Intent, Speech, Action, Livelihood, Morality, Awareness, and Concentration" (Conway).

    "My oh my, that is a lot of rights. Do tell us more about Right Speech!" said Cassius.

Rising Action

    "Right Speech is to avoid talking down upon others," explained the Buddha (Namchak).

    "Wow, is it really that easy?" Jack asked.

    "Yes, just avoid saying mean things to or about others because that only hurts us," the Buddha answered.

Rising Action

    Suddenly, a man with a dictionary for a head came stomping in. "Stop where you are, criminals! You are all under arrest for breaking into the library!" he yelled.

    "Cassius! Do something!" Jack yelped.

    Cassius frantically flipped through the pages of the book. 

Rising Action

    They they were teleported to another part of the library. "We'd better get going. That dictionary guy doesn't seem to be too fond of us," said Montag.

    "This book looks interesting!" Jack said as he picked up a book about Confucianism.

Rising Action

    They were once more sent to another room. This one had a painting of an old man. "Well that's odd, I guess there isn't anyone here," Montag said, turning back to the door.

    "Patience, young man!" the painting scolded.

    "The paintings talk too! what else is new?" Jack snapped.

    The painting ignored him and continued to speak. "I am Confucius. I will be teaching you about Confucianism."

Rising Action

    "So, what is Confucianism?" asked Cassius.

    "It is a set of beliefs made by me. It has five main ideas: humanity, good behavior, loyalty, understanding, and respect," said Confucius (Goscha).

    "Why do we need to learn about humanity if we are all human?" Jack interrupted.

    "Sometimes we don't act like it," the painting replied.

Rising Action

    "Humanity is also known as ren. To build character, a person must learn to move past selfishness to become a better person," he continued (Weiming).

    "I guess there is more to humanity than what we are" Montag replied.

Rising Action

    Another book-headed guard entered. "Aha! There you are! Put your hands where I can see them so I can make this quick," he ordered.

    Jack sighed as he opened the book. "Time to go. Thanks for everything, Mr. Confucius."

Rising Action

    This time, they arrived in a seemingly endless corridor of bookshelves. "This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder, now there's grass and flowers!" exclaimed Jack. 

    "Hey guys, I found an interesting book about something called Christianity," said Montag.

Rising Action

    They were placed in a dark church where a man stood. "Now who may you be?" asked Cassius.

    "I am Jesus. I will be teaching you about Christianity," said the man.

Rising Action