Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Kissing Tennessee and other Stories from the Stardust Dance
	Author:	Appelt, Kathi
	Date Published:	2000
	Genre:	Real Life
	Grade Level:	7 - 12
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Notes:
Short Stories

Booktalk:
See, Annie Price Jackson, see me now? Here in the middle of the Stardust Dance floor with Brooke Patterson. Brooke has blue eyes too, just like you. And they’re looking right at me. See? Maybe Brooke will be Stardust Queen, and I’ll be King. Just look at me now…I’m doing just fine without you. With Brooke of the blue eyes, just as blue as yours. Eyes to get lost in. Eyes to fall into and sink right to the bottom in. Like I sank after you left. But, I’m all dried off now, and doing okay. Except for those times, like now, when I still wish it was you that I was looking at, face to face. I remember that night at the fair last winter. You were at the shooting gallery in that shimmery blue dress staring so hard at that metal duck that everyone around you stopped. Like we all had to. Until you pulled the trigger and Kapow, that duck was a goner, and like Annie Oakley, you lowered the rifle and blew across the top of it…and looked right at me. You took the stuffed tiger from the carny and, when I tried to give you tokens to watch you do it again, you simply handed me the tiger and walked away calling to me to follow. You took me to the Ferris Wheel to “see the stars.” You’re the only girl I’ve ever kissed, Annie. I’ve never kissed Brooke, though that may change tonight. I remember our first kiss on Christmas night. When we left your house and ran to the vacant field at the edge of Pinewood Forest. Oh, you always ran. We had known each other on the track team, and after the fair, we ran all over Dogwood County together. But, that night, we ran to the empty field, and had our first kiss. And, WHAT A KISS. I ran all the way home; it was such a great kiss, Annie Price Jackson. That night, I dreamed of kissing you again, kissing you every day. It was my plan. But, you had another plan, didn’t you Annie. The next morning, you left early for your run, before the sun came up. I can imagine you racing along the road to the high school. But, the guy getting off work at the lumber mill, he couldn’t see you. When he looked down to change the station on the radio, he couldn’t she you running along the shadow of the road, didn'tsee you fly through the air when he hit you. He never saw you at all. Neither did I. I never saw you again. Never will. But look at me now Annie…doing just fine without you.