Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	All American Girl
	Author:	Cabot, Meg
	Date Published:	2002
	Genre:	Humor
	Grade Level:	8 - 10
	Booktalker:	Susi Bonato
	Awards:	Former Blue Spruce Award Nominee

Booktalk:
The whole reason I ended up saving the president of the United States life is on account of a pineapple that wasn’t there. My name is Samantha Madison or Sam for short and no I’m not related to Dolley Madison. I’m an urban rebel, meaning I dress in black on a daily basis and I’m not like my cheerleader popular sister, Lucy who pours over the fashion magazines daily. She does have the coolest boyfriend, Jack who I’m sure is my soulmate and once he wakes up and realizes this, he’ll break up with Lucy to be with me. Back to the pineapple that wasn’t there. I have a bit of an artistic talent and have gotten a reputation around school that I can draw a decent celebrity picture. For the most part I do this for free, because I don’t think it’s fair to charge anyone except for Kris Parks and her group of snobby friends. Kris Parks was my best friend up until third grade when my dad moved us to Morocco. The next year when we came back, I had to attend a speech and hearing class to overcome my speech impediment, something akin to what Cindy had on the Brady Bunch and Kris believed this was fodder to dump me as her friend. But I digress. The problem is Lucy squealed on me about drawing celebrity pictures during Duetsh class and my parents decided to sign me up for an art class to channel my talents. All of that was right and good until the day we had an assignment to draw a still life. Susan Boone, the art teacher, put some fruit on the table and said, “Draw what you see”. So I did, and I added a pineapple to spruce up the picture. When she came around to critiquing mine, she said “Oh Sam, I didn’t tell you to draw what you know, but what you see”. Needless to say, when next Thursday rolled around and Theresa our housekeeper dropped me off, I didn’t head up to class. I went into Capitol Cookies to get a snack and then to Static to listen to some music. Later on, when I was back out on the sidewalk waiting for Theresa, the president came into Capitol Cookies. Then when he came back out, I noticed the guy on the sidewalk next to me, who was also in Static listening to Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” (music for old people, by the way). Mr. “Uptown Girl” started fiddling with his jacket and the next thing I know, he’s pulling a gun on the president. Without even thinking about it, I leapt on top of the guy, foiling his plan and saving the president. Now I’m considered a national hero, with a broken wrist on top of it. Not only that, but I don’t want my parents to find out that I was ditching art class and that’s how I saved the president’s life. On top of that, the whole reason the president showed up in that neighborhood is that his son David was in my class. The very guy who I thought was sort of cute and complimented me on my combat boots. He also knows about my pineapple fiasco. There are times like this, I wish I could be someone cool like Gwen Stephani who would totally know how to handle a situation like this. What’s a girl to do??