Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	The Last Treasure
	Author:	Anderson, Janet S.
	Date Published:	2003
	Genre:	Real Life
	Grade Level:	6 - 12
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
Ten identical houses in a square. With a pond in the middle. One house on the north, and three each on the other three sides of the square. John Matthew Smith was the patriarch of the family and it was he who had them built. One house for himself and his wife Elizabeth, three to the east, three to the west, and three to the south, all looking the same, but feeling different. As different as the children who occupied them. The three to the south, however, had never been occupied as they were meant for the three oldest boys who had all died before their time. To protect against an unseen future, John Matthew had left something in each of the southernmost houses. When times got hard, when money ran out, a child would go into a southernmost house, unravel the particular puzzle that John Matthew had left, and come out again with treasure. Twice, in 1910 and again in 1932, the houses on the ends of the southernmost quadrant had been entered and the treasure had revived the family. Now, there was only the centermost house remaining with treasure. And, it was a treasure badly needed. Something had gone wrong. Children had begun to leave and not return. Smith started to quarrel with Smith, and then to avoid one another. There was no choice but for the ghost of John Matthew to enter the dreams of his many-times-great-grandchildren. Until they would hear . . . and listen . . . and return to retrieve the last treasure and finally allow him his well-deserved rest.