Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	I am Mordred
	Author:	Springer, Nancy
	Date Published:	1998
	Genre:	Fantasy
	Grade Level:	6 - 12
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
I was just a wee babe when my father, the king, tried to murder me. Due to a youthful indiscretion by my father, it had been foretold that I would be the cause of my father’s death and the end of his kingdom. Thus, not knowing which babe was his, my father had loaded myself and thirty-odd other babies born around the same time on a raft and pushed it into the sea, seemingly condemning us all to death from the elements. A dreadful deed for a king to perform. And, it almost worked. For, when the raft drifted into shore near the fisherman’s hut, all the babes had perished, except for me. And, my time was not far off. The fisherman took me in and with his wife restored me to health, and raised me along with their own children, completely unaware of my origins. Until I was “rescued” and sent to live with my lady mother, Morgauese. Sent there to protect me from her sister Morgan who wished revenge on the king, my father, her half brother. My brothers never lost any love, nor time, from our mother or her husband on my account. I did receive the same education and training in arms as my brothers and, in time, followed in their footsteps and became a knight in the king’s castle. The king was unwaveringly friendly, and even loving towards me, much as he was to any of his favored knights, perhaps even more so. He never again tried to harm me, and he even came to trust me. He was a good and righteous king who must have regretted his act of murder of babes. But, he had done it for the good of the kingdom, and he never talked about it. Nor did he ever acknowledge me as his son. For my part, I have vowed to fight my destiny and my curse. I have vowed to be my own man and loyal to the king, my father. I will not be the instrument of punishment of a mecurical mage to punish the honest mistake of a young and inexperienced king. I am not a Pawn of Merlyn to be used in his manipulations of Arthur and Camelot. I will be my own man, for I am Mordred.