Beanpole the awesomeness!!!!!!

In the book "The White Mountains" Will and Henry have run away from home to escape being Capped by the Tripods. They meet a boy called Zhanpole or Beanpole who joins them on their journey to the White Mountains. Beanpole is a weird-looking boy and different from the other people that Will and Henry have met. In page 69 of the book, Beanpole is described as "He looked odd and solemn standing there, tall and thin, with that strange metal-and-glass thing on his face." Beanpole is a very clever person. He has "a tremendous brain" (page 71). He made his own spectacles so that he could see more clearly. He also taught himself English from an old book.

I think that Beanpole will be very helpful for Will and Henry on their journey to the White Mountains. First, he can communicate with them in English but he can also speak the local language. This is very useful because Will and Henry have to travel across Beanpole's country (France) to get to the White Mountains but they cannot speak the local language. Beanpole can communicate with the local people. This makes it easier for the boys to get important information, like when Capping day is held at the Castle of the Red Tower so they can leave in time (page 109). Also, since Beanpole can speak the local language, it makes it less suspicious to other people who might alert the Tripods. The boys would look like they are locals, and not runaways from another country. They achieved this by pretending to be deaf-mute cousins of Beanpole. This was also Beanpole's idea (page 103). So again it shows how useful he is to Will and Henry.

Another reason why I think Beanpole can help Will and Henry on their journey is because being a local, he knows certain things which can help the boys get to the White Mountains faster and without being detected. For example, Beanpole knows where the Tripods usually travel, so they could avoid the roads that the Tripods usually use. He also knows about ways of traveling that could get the boys to the White Mountains faster than walking on roads. He took them to the Shmand-Fair, the train pulled by horses. The train took them south much farther and faster than they would have done by walking (pages 72-77).

The last reason why I think Beanpole can help Will and Henry on their journey is because he is a good planner and inventor. For example, Beanpole came up with the idea to escape from the Castle of the Red Tower during the tournament and not immediately. He knew that people would be busy and there would be much confusion and so the boys would not be missed for a few days. And because there would be more exciting things to do at the castle during the tournament, the people would not take the trouble to hunt for the boys. I think that Beanpole is a good inventor because he created his spectacles and said that he knew that hot air rises and that this could be used to power a hot air balloon, or even the subway train and cars that they discovered in the Ancient City (page 79 and 87).

Being an inventor, he might be able create a hot air balloon that works so the boys could travel even faster. He might even be able to create a weapon using the "metal eggs" or grenades that they found in the Ancient City and brought along with them.

These are the reasons why I think Beanpole can help Will and Henry on their journey. I think that Beanpole is the smartest person in the book, even smarter than Ozymandias!!