Joy's pov
Nice to see you again! Caleb mentioned you visited while he and the Emasters were there, and is it true you went to the Subconscious? That is so brave of you. I don't know many people who would willingly visit the Subconscious. Fear pales at the very name. Oh, what's that? Info about the Personality Islands? Well, you've come to the right place. I guess we can start with Bookworm Island. That's one of the ones I always help out in creating the Core Memory for.
Speaking of Core Memories, right now the one for Bookworm is sort of a blend of every emotional color. Sarah's reading Legend for the first time. See, in the books that Sarah likes best, every one of us emotions get a chance to use the console. Ideally, there's a good dose of comedy, at least one tearjerker, a tense or otherwise scary moment, maybe a romantic subplot, a dash of action, and themes that we have to consider deeply. The perfect example? Charlotte's Web. Sarah's loved that one ever since she was a preschooler. Some other favorites include Fablehaven, The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash, pretty much anything written by Roald Dahl, and more recently dystopias. Like you heard, Sarah's been working with the ideas in her favorite dystopias to develop her own.
The first-ever Bookworm Island Core Memory was when Sarah was really little - about five months old. Logic would know for sure, but she wasn't around at the time. I think it was still just me and Sadness at that point. Anyway, it was really late, and Sarah was already tucked in. Mom had just turned on the nightlight, which was the only thing that would get Sarah to go to sleep. Eventually, Sarah got over her fear of the dark, but it was there for a while. It's why the Subconscious is so dim. Anyway, we hadn't really come up with Islands yet. Most haven't at that age. But back to the story...
Sadness had both decided to hit the sack early, so I was left alone. I was just about to guide my girl into REM and send off the memories from the day when Mom did something completely unexpected. She sat down at the foot of Sarah's bed, a book in her arms. She opened the book and began to read aloud. It was a sweet book, one about how different baby animals in a forest got themselves ready for bed. Sarah went right to sleep, unusually, after the story ended, but I had been holding down the button the whole time. I had been so entranced in the atmosphere of the story. I wanted to know if all books would do that. The console was still glowing yellow as Sarah closed her eyes, and a millisecond before she did, a gleaming yellow memory rolled down to a newly formed podium and sparkles formed an Island - our first Island.
Sadness was shocked by the new Island. She was convinced it was a very bad thing. In the end, we checked out a Mind Manual and learned that this was perfectly normal for Sarah. Sadness got used to the Island. As Sarah grew older, she continued to love being read to, and, eventually, reading books herself. Her favorite books had memories dedicated to the text and pictures. One of my favorite games was to have Sarah quote a picture book from memory. I noticed a change in the emotions, too - we became more interested in books ourselves. We read the Mind Manuals and book that had been sent up from the Island, eagerly devouring each and every one. Logic, naturally, was the first to notice that the Island had affected us. He wasn't worried. (That's Fear's department!)
Now, about the Island itself. It serves as a library and bookstore for the rest of the mind. Every book Sarah has ever read, and a few she's merely heard of or read summaries for, has at least one copy on the shelves. From Headquarters, it looks like a stack of books, very artistically arranged. The titles (they are very visible) are those of Sarah's all-time favorites, which I already mentioned. And Bookworm Island has recall tubes connecting it to related Islands! Those would be Writer, Fangirl, and Learning. I'm actually off to Bookworm myself! Want to come? No? Eh, all right. Enjoy the rest of your self-guided tour!