52 pages • 1 hour read
Jennifer A. NielsenWords on Fire
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
Ben approaches them in a wagon, driving wildly. Once Lukas and Audra are aboard, Ben notices she looks like Henri and explains that “all book carriers knew [her] parents” (90). Audra clarifies that they are still alive, and she has a plan to free them.
Ben dismisses the idea and plans to drop the children off in the next town. Lukas helps Audra hide the books in the wagon, and Audra realizes they are heading north, where the soldier in Venska mentioned they would be searching next. Audra volunteers to check the road ahead, suggesting that Ben follow in the wagon a few minutes later. She quickly runs into soldiers, one of whom is Rusakov. He recognizes her and offers to free her parents from their deportation sentence in exchange for information about a book-smuggling boy. She agrees to meet him in two days with information.
Rusakov pretends to be ignorant of Ben’s identity when he arrives and asks him to take Audra to Šiauliai with him. Audra does not tell Ben or Lukas about her deal with Rusakov, and Ben commends her for her bravery. Despite her fear, Audra decides she wants to keep smuggling books.
Chapter 14 Summary
On the road, Lukas continues his story of Rue to cheer Audra up. When they arrive at a church in Šiauliai, a priest greets them and directs them to hide the books in the stables. Audra continues to feel conflicted about her decision but does not see how there is “any other way” (103) to save her parents.
Lukas gives Audra a book of her own so she can learn how to read in Lithuanian. The priest finds Audra contemplating and shares that he heard about her parents’ work. Lina would compile book orders, and then Henri would take the orders to Prussia to be printed and smuggle them back across the border. Lukas explains that the power of books is in their ability to plant seeds of hope in people’s minds so that they feel empowered to act. This helps Audra understand that if you “give [the people] books [...] the people will control themselves” (107).
Ben agrees that hope for freedom is important but does not want Audra to be naive. He does not think her parents will return from Siberia and warns Audra about the dangers and discomforts of book smuggling. Audra feels torn but realizes that she is not the same person she was a few weeks ago. She assures Ben that she can help them, and he reluctantly agrees to let her help.
Chapter 15 Summary
Unable to sleep in the church that night, Audra starts flipping through her new book and learns how to read a few words. She thinks about her mother, feeling conflicting emotions of fear, despair, and anger that her mother kept her life secret from Audra.
Audra dozes off and is awoken suddenly by a man who warns them of an impending search. They gather their belongings and begin reloading the books. The man offers to distribute some in his cart, but Ben, Lukas, and Audra must take the rest on foot to avoid their wagon being stopped. The three must split up to head to Šiluva, the town near Audra’s home. Audra asks Ben to draw her a map using milk on some paper, and he directs her to find a secret school in town, where the group will meet again. Audra promises Ben she will get to Šiluva.
Chapter 16 Summary
The trio sets out for Šiluva on different paths. After many hours of walking, Audra lights a small fire in the forest and warms up her map. The milk dries darker, allowing her to see Ben’s instructions. Audra hears someone following her nearby and hurries away. She picks up a large stick to defend herself but mistakes Lukas for a stranger and hits him, knocking him down. Lukas explains that their paths had crossed but suddenly warns Audra to hide.
Momentarily, two Russian soldiers confront Lukas and his spilled books. The soldiers force Lukas to his knees and whip his back with a tree branch. Unable to let the violence continue, Audra grabs a snake and tosses it by the soldiers’ horses as a distraction, which forces the soldiers to chase after the bolting animals. Audra helps Lukas gather the books, and they quickly find a safer hiding spot—the patch of ferns she hid in on midsummer’s eve. Lukas encourages Audra to see if her house is safe while he rests. Audra is horrified to see her home completely destroyed and breaks down in tears.
Chapter 17 Summary
Audra spends a long time staring at the ruins until Lukas joins her. The small barn is still intact, so they decide to rest there. Audra contemplates the decision she must make about Rusakov’s offer and decides she will protect Lukas at the cost of losing her parents. While Lukas sleeps, Audra flips through one of Lukas’s books, trying to make sense of the few words she can recognize in a poem. When he wakes up, Lukas prompts her to understand the poem’s symbolism and explains that the Lithuanian resistance to Imperial Russia is still active.
He shares more about Ben’s past, revealing that Ben escaped execution for his role in the uprising decades ago. His guilt over losing his friends makes him so protective of Lukas and Audra. As they prepare to leave the barn, Lukas spots a notebook hidden on one of the beams. Audra recognizes it as her father’s notes of magic tricks and decides to keep it private until the day she can read it herself. Due to Lukas’s pain, they walk slowly toward town, and to distract themselves, Lukas continues his story about Rue.
Chapter 18 Summary
It takes Lukas and Audra an hour to walk to the barn in Šiluva. Ben awaits them with worry, and Lukas’s wounds confirm for Ben that children should not be smuggling. Audra helps Ben carry the books down to the underground library but is immediately disappointed to see how few books this library has.
A group of young people, the same people that Audra encountered the night of her escape, arrive to take out books, and everyone is surprised to find Audra in the library. They thank Audra for her work and accept it in return for their assistance that night.
They choose their books and leave quickly, and Audra feels excited by this “whirlwind” of activity. Audra is eager to continue smuggling, but Ben decides it is safest if she returns to Milda’s while Lukas stays in Šiluva to heal. Overhearing one of the other girls sparks an interest in writing for Audra, and the girl gives Audra a pencil and some paper before departing.
Chapters 13-18 Analysis
A major turning point for Audra’s character is when she teaches herself to read; this unlocks the power to think for herself, a power she would have never noticed was missing from her life before meeting the smugglers (121). Audra remembers her mother telling her years ago that “books were dangerous” (107), and in that context, she understood them to be dangerous for Lithuanians to be caught with them. Now, however, Audra understands that books are dangerous to the Russian empire, for they provide Lithuanians the “freedom to think, to believe, to dream” (109) of an independent country. In this section, reading leads Audra to understand Knowledge as Power and Resistance on two levels. She first realizes the individual impact of knowing how to read; it is a powerful skill for understanding the world that was denied to her by her parents, who wanted to protect her. Almost at the same time, Audra realizes the exponential power of knowledge to empower a nation, noting that people with books control themselves. Thus, resistance to the press ban, even at such great sacrifice, is inextricably linked to Embracing and Defending One’s Culture and Identity, individually and collectively, as a proud people.
Audra’s first smuggling mission results in a massive moral dilemma: The decision to turn Lukas in in exchange for her parents’ freedom is an intentionally cruel offer from Rusakov, taking advantage of a child’s vulnerability. Rusakov’s offer exemplifies the lopsided Justice Under Oppressive Systems, where false promises, threats, and bribes replace the rule of law. Other examples of such “justice” include the beating Lukas receives from the two Russian soldiers and the destruction of the Vikaris home. In both cases, consequences were meted out by Russian soldiers determined to teach Lithuanians lessons for resisting the oppressive press ban. For Audra, the deal offered by Rusakov consumes her thoughts, as evidenced by the several chapters she spends contemplating the right choice. Though her first instinct is to save her parents, she finally decides she does not want to be responsible for another person’s life. The choice to protect Lukas echoes the difficult sacrifice Audra’s parents made to protect her.
As Audra starts to understand the power of knowledge, she also begins to see more clearly that laws are not always just—especially when they are dictated by oppressive systems. The Church’s facilitation of book smuggling starkly juxtaposes its image of lawfulness and piety but upholds its symbolism as an institution that serves as a sanctuary. Preserving the freedom to pray necessitates preserving the Lithuanian language, which means the Church must push back against assimilating, even if it is the law. The inverted nature of justice under Russian rule means that the Church must participate in “criminal” activity to help save the Lithuanian culture, which is closely linked to the Catholic faith, and smuggling books is the means for doing so. Using their coded story of Rue, Lukas warns her that assimilation is the easier and safer choice, but at the expense of losing their country and their sense of self.
Audra’s return to Šiluva symbolizes a homecoming for her, but she is not the same person she was the last time she saw her home. Her destroyed childhood home marks the loss of her childhood, but her reunion with Violeta and the other town children unites them and affirms everyone’s actions: Violeta is proud to have saved Audra that night, as that enabled Audra to bring them more books. Meanwhile, the children’s excitement over the new delivery is the visceral effect of the book smugglers’ work, which further inspires Audra and helps her understand that “[e]very book matters” (141), just as Ben says.
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By Jennifer A. Nielsen
