Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Sign of the Dove
	Author:	Fletcher, Susan
	Date Published:	1996
	Genre:	Fantasy
	Grade Level:	6 - 7
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
Long, long ago the dragons flourished upon the earth, preying upon the deer, foxes, bears, etc. Also on humans you say? Only when cornered, as a wolf would do. But, then humans multiplied...like rabbits or lemmings...and began to cover the earth, encroaching upon the territory of the ancient dragons, just as they have on the territory of the deer, wolf...indeed on the territory of every other animal that inhabits the planet. There were clashes, sometimes going one way, sometimes the other. But the humans kept multiplying. So, the Ancient Ones moved north, away from the lands of the humans, a Migration across the northern sea. No one knows for certain where their land now lies. But that's another tale. Dragon eggs ripen for nearly a hundred years before the draclings are hatched. There is about a seven-year span for the hatching of each new generation. The eggs had to be left behind in the migration, and when they began to hatch, the dragon dams returned to find the land even more crowded by the humans. Many were slain outright, along with their hatchlings. Then the queen put out a bounty...a wolf's head it was called...on the dragons. Men were sent out with the silver pipes whose tones were known to lull dragons into a trance where they could be killed. The rumor was encouraged that by eating a dragon's heart, a man could make himself invulnerable to the sword. And, so the deaths of the dragons continued until it looked as if an entire generation of dragons would be destroyed. Yet, the dragons had friends among the race of humans. Why, you ask? Many reasons. Some were enemies of the Krags who had subdued the land and wished to push them back out, or to thwart their plans in whatever way. Others...well, can you imagine the world without wolves, or bears...or dogs or cats?? Multiply that a thousand fold if you have ever seen the magnificence of a dragon soaring through the air. Whatever their reasons, there were those who were sworn to help save the dragons in whatever way possible regardless of the cost. Those who were known by the Sign of the Dove. But, now all the dragon mothers had been killed, except for the dragon queen. The last killed had been raising several rescued clutches of draclings until they would be able to fly the path of Migration to join their brethren. The king's men had failed to find the draclings, so they had come searching for Lyf...because of her green eyes, caused by the dragon milk that saved her life and giving her a link to the dragons. She escaped, of course, and joined my parents, siblings and myself. I was only three at the time, but it was my toddler ramblings in the cave, searching for the draclings, that saved Lyf and myself from the soldiers when they came. It was me that accompanied Lyf, lost and alone, in our flight from the queen's men. It was me who first found the draclings, in the tree stump as we wandered lost. It was me who accompanied Lyf's great quest for those of the Sign of the Dove.