Pondathon II: Prologue – We’re Going to Save the Forest! [Readathon Information]

Pondathon II is a year-long gardening-themed readathon hosted by The Quiet Pond! Help us restore the forest by reading to earn plants and decorate your own garden. For more information about Pondathon, read our Readathon Information Post or check out our Pondathon II Portal.

The story:

It’s a warm morning when you decide to visit your friends at the Pond. It’s been awhile since you’ve seen them; you miss everyone’s smiles, and if the letter you received, a message scrawled on a single oak leaf, is any indication, you have a feeling that they miss you too.

“Friend,” the letter begins (and you can hear Xiaolong’s voice), “It’s been awhile since we’ve seen you. Gen asks how you’ve been! Can you come visit us sometime? We are having a Very Important Pond Meeting and it’s important that you’re there too!”

When you arrive, the Pond friends are all waiting for you by your favourite spot, a spot where the light filters through to the Pond’s water, giving the pond a seemingly magical glow.

“Hi friend!” says Xiaolong, waving you over and patting the spot by her side. “You’re just in time. We were coming up with a plan to save the forest.”

As she says this, you feel a twinge in your heart. It’s been over a year since you fought alongside the Pond friends to defend the forest from a wicked and evil darkness. And yet, despite the time that has passed, the forest hasn’t felt the same.

“The forest sprites aren’t as happy as they used to be,” explains Sprout. “They are slowly coming back, but the battle scarred the forest deeply. Rebuilding has been hard.”

“So, we decided to do something about it!” says Xiaolong with a determined gleam in her eyes. “We aren’t going to just sit here and hope that things get better. We’re going to do something about it.” 

You look at Xiaolong and you know: when she sets her mind to something, not even the strongest wind can sway her path. 

“Friends, we’re going to help the forest get better.”

Friends of the Pond!

Welcome to Pondathon II, The Quiet Pond‘s story-driven readathon! This readathon has been a side project of mine for the last six months, and I am so excited to finally kick off our very first day of a long but fulfilling journey.

Today’s post will contain introductory information to Pondathon II, key dates for the entire readathon, and also an ‘index page’ that will be updated regularly as new content rolls out.

Welcome to the Pondathon II Readathon

What:

• Pondathon II is a sequel to Pondathon I, which was our very first readathon where everyone worked together to protect the Pond from a wicked evil. Pondathon II takes place after Pondathon I – and the Pond friends have recruited you to help them heal the forest after the devastating battle.
• In this readathon, read books to collect plants and decorations for your very own digital garden at the Pond.
• Our goal is to motivate readers commit to an awesome and satisfying year of reading. Reading books to collect plants and/or decorations for your garden are for your leisure only; there is no competitive aspect to decorating your garden.
• During the readathon, the Pond friends – and some of our friends from beyond the Pond! – will give you a quest. Completing the quest will give you an exclusive quest reward.

How:

• Put on your gardening gloves, find your comfiest gumboots, and make sure you sign-up and register your participation for the readathon on January 5th 2022.
• Create your own Pond character! Character creation will be available on the same day as sign-up day. Here is a preview of some premade characters that you can use — or, you will be able to create and customise your own!

• On sign-up day, character cards will be available which you can use to show off to all your friends! They will look a little something like this:

• What do those little circles at the bottom mean? Complete the ‘bonus’ objective in our side quests and find out. 👀
• Each time you read for the Pondathon, fill out a short Google form to record your progress – and we will run some data-magic on your behalf. (The form will be available once the readathon officially begins.)

When:

• Note: All dates mentioned during the Pondathon will be in accordance to NZT (New Zealand Time).
• The Pondathon readathon will begin on January 10th 2022 and will end on December 11th 2022 June 26th 2022.
• Sign-ups and character creation will be open on January 5th and will stay open until the end of the Pondathon.
• Unclear on how the Pondathon works? A Tutorial will be posted on January 6th.
• Have a question? The Pondathon F.A.Q. will be posted on January 7th.
• There will be 12 optional quests available for you to complete all throughout the Pondathon.
• We have some special friends visiting us during Pondathon – you will receive 12 optional quests from 12 friends across the year.

Pondathon II Schedule

Dates	Event	Details
January 5	Sign-up and Character Creation	Sign-ups will remain open until the end of the Pondathon.
January 6	Tutorial: How the Pondathon Readathon Works	The Pondathon readathon and how it all works, explained.
January 7	Frequently Asked Questions	Your burning questions answered here! This will be regularly updated.
January 10	Pondathon II Begins!	Submit your reading/writing progress using the Pondathon Progress Tracker Form.
January 10	First quarter begins
January 10 – January 29	Quest: Encourage Xiaolong’s flowers to grow	One of the Pond friends will give you a side-quest. Complete it to earn an exclusive item for your garden.
January 17	Companion Quest: Racquel Marie	A friend of the Pond (author with a book releasing 2022) will visit us and give us all a quest!
January 30 – February 19	Quest: Let’s plant saplings with Gen
February 6	Companion Quest: Alechia Dow
February 20 – March 12	Quest: Start a vegetable garden with Cuddle
March 20	Companion Quest: Judy Lin
March 13 – April 2	Quest: Plant some new trees with Sprout
April 2	First quarter ends	At the end of the quarter, we’ll do a wrap-up post of the Pondathon II so far. Gardens submitted for our spotlight will be featured.
April 3	Second quarter begins
April 3 – Apr 23	Quest: Building homes for bugs with Varian
April 10	Companion Quest: TBC
April 24 – May 14	Quest: Help Amina transpose this plant’s magical melody
May 22	Companion Quest: Jen Ferguson
May 15 – June 4	Quest: Let’s read to Xiaolong’s flowers again
June 12	Companion Quest: Andrew Joseph White
June 5 – June 25	Quest: Waiting together with Sprout
June 25	Second quarter ends
June 26	Pondathon II Ends