Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	A Coming Evil
	Author:	Vande Velde, Vivian
	Date Published:	1998
	Genre:	Horror
	Grade Level:	6 - 8
	Booktalker:	Bonnie Phinney

Booktalk:
When I look back on that year at Aunt Josephine’s farm, I sometimes wonder if I would have been willing to sacrifice so much – to stand up for a principle I believed in. And I can’t even imagine what the parents of those children had to do… I was only 13 – that’s when my parents sent me away to live in the French countryside with my aunt. They THOUGHT it would be safer than Paris, which was then occupied by the Nazis. I doubt they’d have done it if they had known the truth… My name is Lisette Beauclaire – and I can tell you – I was furious! Furious that I had to leave my friends and miss all the excitement of starting eighth grade in a new school…AND furious that I’d have to spend time with my bratty 10-year old cousin, Cecile. She just won’t leave me alone. And she always thinks up ways to get me in trouble. But my parents - they wouldn’t listen to me. Exile. That’s what it felt like. Exile. When father and I arrived, however, we found out right away that things weren’t exactly as my parents had hoped – but by then it was too late! It wasn’t just Cecile and Aunt Josephine – there were five other kids living there, too. Five kids, all under 8 years old. Now it was my father’s turn to be angry! Aunt Josephine tried to assure him that everyone was safe – that these children – Gypsy and Jewish children of friends – were not going to be a problem. No one knew they were here. All was well. Goodbye. And so my father left me there. That was when I met Gerard. No, Gerard wasn’t another refugee – he was a ghost. I know… that sounds weird. I thought so too. But lucky for all of us I did meet him, or we wouldn’t be here today to tell you this story. You see – he died in the 14th century and had been hanging around this valley for centuries. The more I learned about his life, the more I began to understand just how history sort of keeps repeating itself over and over, only with new villains and heroes. And that’s what Gerard was…a hero…when the Germans finally came.