Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Double Helix
	Author:	Werlin, Nancy
	Date Published:	2004
	Genre:	Sci-Fi
	Grade Level:	6 - 12
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
I'd done it. I'd been drunk, but I'd done it. Sent a letter to Wyatt Transgenics looking for a job after I graduated from High School. And then, Dr. Wyatt, the Dr Wyatt, the Nobel Prize winner, one of the most important scientists alive, had wanted to see me. And, he'd offered me a job for the year. ...because he knew my parents, especially my mother. At Wyatt Transgenics, where most of the employees, even lab workers, had master's degrees. Or Doctorates. My father was furious with me, but we hadn't been getting along that well since mom's Huntington's disease had gotten so bad that she had been put into a fulltime care facility. When he found out where I was working, and for whom, he lost his temper. Tried to talk me out of it. But I wouldn't budge. Finally, he told me to do whatever I wanted, since he knew I would anyway. A father who was furious with me, and an insane mother, what a family. Viv, my girlfriend, on the other hand, was very supportive. But, she was hoping to use the graduation ceremony to meet my parents, something I had avoided at all costs. See, Huntington's was hereditary, and I had a 50-50 chance of having the disease. Fifty-fifty because I had found the hidden letter that had verified that my dad was free of the disease. My dad wanted me to do the test when I was eligible at age 18, but I had so far refused. I didn't want to face the rest of my life knowing that I would eventually turn crazy like my mother if it turned out that I had the disease. And, I didn't want Viv to know about it and have to face what my father and I were going through with my mother. But, then I met Kayla at Dr. Wyatt's house. Kayla who looked almost identical to my mother when she was Kayla's age. And then, I discovered the elevator at Wyatt Transgenics that had a fifth underground floor that none of the other elevators or the architect's drawings showed. Something wasn't quite right, and it involved me and my parents and Dr. Wyatt...and the reason that my dad hated Dr. Wyatt so much. I had to find the truth.