Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	alchemy
	Author:	Mahy, Margaret
	Date Published:	2003
	Genre:	Fantasy
	Grade Level:	6 - 7
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
Always the same dream. He'd had it night after night. Walking with his father, going to a fair, stopping to watch Quando the magician who tries to use his father for a volunteer. When his father refuses, the boy is talked into being the volunteer. He is put into a box, the lid is closed. Then, the box is closed, Quando knocks three times on the lid, and. . . he is suspended in a space with light all around him. Then, the lid opens. Quando asks what happened, where he went, what he saw. Say nothing says the voice in his head, so "It was dark," he lies. He and his father leave. He awakens. In school the English teacher, Mr. Hudson, confronts Roland with the items he had shoplifted. But, he is not really interested in punishing Roland or reporting him to authorities. Instead, he wants Roland to perform a task for him. To cultivate one of the pupils that the teacher says he is worried about. To find out what is bothering her and report back to him. To 'spy' on her. Jess Ferret, the weasel, who is always on her own. Roland doesn't buy it, but decides he doesn't really have a choice. But, he will listen to the voice and be careful and circumspect. And divulge only what he decides to. Somehow, the dream and Jess Ferret are tied together. Things are going to make sense. If he can just keep calm and in control.