Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Clay
	Author:	Colby Rodowsky
	Date Published:	2001
	Genre:	Real Life
	Grade Level:	5 - 8
	Booktalker:	Marilyn Bunker

Booktalk:
L.C. McGee, Linda Clay, Linda Clay McGee, Elsie McPhee, I scribbled the words over and over. I turned the page over and wrote Tommy McPhee, Timmy McGee, Timmy, Tommy. The door in my head creaked open wider and wider. Memories came flooding in. I closed my eyes and stuffed fingers in my ears, pushing them away and keeping them out. But I knew sure as anything that they’d be there waiting for me. My Mom, Timmy and I always live in an in furnished apartments named Garden View or Valley Green, or Mountain Glen. All furnished with a bunch of left behinds that various tenants through the years had left behind. The towels are always skimpy, with lumpy beds and flickering TVs and there are never any mountains, valleys, or gardens in sight. One day I was watching some new people move in across the street. They were real people who had children. I asked Timmy to come and have a look. He didn’t of course. A girl about my age and a boy about the same age as Timmy got out of a truck. Timmy was busy swirling stones. He spends a lot of time swirling stones or salt or sugar or dust. Stirring them in circles round and round, When we go outside he collects tiny stones and stores them in a Folgers can. It drives my Mom crazy. She is a waitress in a diner, and I mostly watch Timmy since she is always at work. I tried to get Timmy to go out with me and meet the new arrivals, but first I had to promise that we would go and collect some new stones. I checked to see if I had the key around my neck and off we went. We met the kids Manda and Checker, and spent the rest of the afternoon playing and talking with them, except Timmy who collected his stones and just sort of sat took it all in. After I had made Timmy dinner, I told him that we wouldn’t say anything to Mom about this. The thing about Timmy is that you’re never really sure how much he understands. About three days later my Mom came home from work and announced that we were moving again. We packed up our few possessions; I got Timmy in the car, and asked my Mom. Ok! Where are we going this time. My Mother snapped, “Don’t you be giving a lot of mouth for trying to keep you safe. If I told you once I told you a hundred times, there’s evil out there waiting to grab you.” She told me that I was the reason for moving. She said that I had gone and mixed with strangers, so we had to go. I asked if I could please go to a real school this time. And she said that I could get everything I needed in a library book. And as we drove into the night, those memories came back and pulled and tugged at me. I remember Nana and Popoo. I remember Mom saying that our Father doesn’t want us anymore. I remember Mom saying that we could never go home to Nana and Popoos; because they were too busy traveling to take care of us and that she had done them a big favor by taking us off their hands. I remember Father had made an appointment for Timmy to see the Doctor, but Mom said there wasn’t anything wrong with Timmy. But I knew there was something not right. I just couldn’t understand why we had to keep moving all the time. New Jersey, Delaware, and now we were moving to Virginia. I wondered what would happen if I just walked in somewhere and said my name is Linda Clay McGee and my brother Timmy and I are missing children.