Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Tangerine
	Author:	Bloor, Edward
	Date Published:	1997
	Genre:	Real Life
	Grade Level:	7 - 12
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
Tangerine. Florida. That’s where we moved this year for the fulfillment of the Erik Fisher Football Dream. Erik’s my brother. He’s a senior, and a place-kicker in football. We moved from Houston so that he’d get exposure to the top-level football programs. Houston just wasn’t good enough for him and dad. I’m afraid of Erik. There’s a mean streak to him, and he always acts better than everyone else and always has a goon following him around. Except wen there is someone important to impress. Then, he’s the perfect phony. Me? Oh, I’m Paul, the little runt. I’m a soccer goalie. I was the starter on my team in Houston. Here at ‘Lake Windsor, though, I got kicked of the team. Not because of something I did though. No, but because my mom filled out a form saying I was legally blind. I can see fine now, with my thick glasses, in fact I can see things that others can’t seem to. Like Erik’s evil phoniness. But, mom filled out the form, and the coach said that the insurance wouldn’t cover me, so I couldn’t be on the team. But, then the sinkhole hit. The seventh and eighth graders at Lake Windsor Middle School had all their classes in portable classrooms. It rains every afternoon in the fall in Tangerine County and one day it really rained hard. And long. And, a mud sinkhole started to develop and classroom 19 fell into it...along with the students in the classroom. The rest of us formed a line and helped them escape. There was an investigation, and it turns out that the head of the county Engineering department was getting paid by developers to look the other way and sign off inspections without inspecting anything. So, he got fired and dad got promoted into his job, promising that inspections would actually be performed from then on. But, it wouldn’t be until the next semester that they would have the area properly prepared and the new classrooms ready. So, for the rest of the fall semester, we had two options. We could either go to a split day session, or we could transfer to Tangerine Middle School for the remainder of the semester. Tangerine Middle School, the original school, now on the ‘wrong side of the tracks.’ Where the gangstas hung out. The rough side of town. But, Tangerine had a soccer team. And, they didn’t know that I was supposed to be ‘visually impaired.’ And, this time mom wouldn’t tell them. In fact, she transferred my files to Tangerine herself, and the IEP form got mysteriously lost during the trip. So, yeah, I decided to attend Tangerine. Yeah, they did the first week initiation thing to me at the school. But, it was just to see what kind of a person I was and if I’d look down on them. I didn’t, and I didn’t take the harassment personally. I accepted them as they were, and they accepted me as I was. And, I was on the soccer team. As a sub. But, that was okay for me because I knew that goaltenders get hurt and subs always get a chance to play. Besides, Shandra, the goaltender, had earned her position and was sure to be an All-County selection. Yeah, their team had both girls and boys on it, and though they had some really talented boys, the best players were two of the girls. They, or rather, we, the WAR EAGLES, were awesome. But, there was still the Erik Fisher Football Dream to contend with. And my eyesight. You see, I couldn’t remember what had happened to my eyesight. I used to be able to see just fine, until I was about 5. Then there was a blank. Erik had always told people that it was because I had stared at an eclipse, but Erik was a jerk. Besides, that just didn’t feel right. Mom and dad were always vague about what had happened, and things just didn’t feel right. Somehow, it just felt like it had something to do with Erik, and the reason I was so afraid of him. I keep getting these flashes of partial memory of things that happened back then. But they’re incomplete. Anyway, it’ll all be in my journal. If and when I finally remember. And, I just know that I will. Things seem to be changing for the good. Maybe the move wasn’t so bad after all. Maybe it will finally all make sense and I’ll discover the truth and won’t be afraid of Erik anymore. Yep, it's changing us all here in Tangerine.