In the ancient city of Ninevah in Mesopotamia, a despotic yet highly educated king named Ashurbanipal rules. Though he thinks nothing of laying waste to entire cities, he treasures his library, his most prized possession being a piece of the Epic of Gligamesh, transcribed onto a rare and beautiful piece of lapis lazuli stone.
Thousands of years later, in Victorian London, a remarkable boy is born by the muddy waters of the Thames. As he grows up, his eidetic memory will be both a blessing and a curse, but will ultimately provide him with his ticket out of the slums when he falls in love with a book about an ancient city named Ninevah.
Later still, in 2014 Turkey, a young girl named Narin, who is of the often misunderstood and discriminated-against Yazidi tribe, lives by the River Tigris. She is awaiting a pilgrimage to Iraq to be baptized with water from the holy city of Lalish. However, when her family is attacked by insurgents, her life is irrevocably changed.
Finally, it is 2018 and Zaleekhah is nursing the wounds left by her broken marriage. A hydrologist who has always been in love with the water, Zaleekhah moves into a houseboat on the Thames to find some peace and put back together the wreckage of what has become her life. When an unexpected incident brings her back to her homeland, she just might find a new purpose.
Though centuries separate these four stories, they are connected by one lost poem and two great rivers - and it all begins with one drop of water.
OPTION 1: RUN TO THE WATER
This might be a little on the nose, but for the first option you should make a layout that includes water. Though the focus of the book is the two mighty rivers - the Tigris and the Thames - for the purposes of the challenge, your layout can feature any kind of water: lake, ocean, pool, rain, etc. However, the water should be the focus of the page, not a layout of a cookout that just happens to be by a lake.
One of my favorite layouts of my girls when they were little, in our favorite place - the beach.
OPTION 2: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
One of my favorite parts of this book is the idea of the past affecting the present and future in ways no one can predict. The threads that connect the narratives in the book through time and space are so well done and thought provoking and that is my inspiration for the second challenge. For Option 2, make a layout of something from the past affecting the present. For example, is there a holiday tradition that you did as a child and have now continued with your family? Are there dolls you played with when you were younger that now belong to your children? Scrap about it!
When my daughter wanted the same Barbie I'd had as a kid and I was able to get it for her.
The Fine Print:
1. HAVE FUN MAKING YOUR PROJECT!
2. Entries open to new projects - paper, digital, & card making.
3. May be combined with one other challenge that allows it.
4. Due November 30th, at 11:59 PM.
5. One lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive a $5 ACOT gift card from me!
6. Up to 3 entries permitted per month.
7. If there are more than 15 unique entries (not including bonuses) during the month, a second name will be drawn and that person will get an automatic entry for the following month.
