Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Crispin: the Cross of Lead
	Author:	Avi
	Date Published:	2002
	Genre:	Fantasy
	Grade Level:	6 - 8
	Booktalker:	Susan Bartel
	Awards:	Former Blue Spruce Award Nominee

Booktalk:
Only the priest and I were there to bury my mother. The village shunned her in death as they had in life. No sooner was my mother in the ground than John Aycliffe, the steward of the manor, appeared. “Asta’s son”, he called to me. I approached the unkind man, my head bowed. Aycliffe informed me I was to deliver our ox to the manor house as payment for the death tax. I protested that this would leave me with no way to make my living. I was, after all, only thirteen. He responded, “Then starve.” And he rode away. Greatly upset, I raced off into the forest, headless of my path. I tripped, hit my head on a stone, and let the darkness come. When I regained my bearings, my head throbbing, I tried to find my way in the dark of night. I saw a flickering light. Drawn in that direction, I saw two men. One was the hated Aycliffe, the other man I’d never seen before. They discussed in hushed tones. I could make no sense of their words, though they spoke of “great dangers.” Aycliffe then turned. Our eyes met, he cried “Asta’s son” and began, with sword drawn, to run for me. I crashed forward, tumbled over a cliff, and was saved by the extreme darkness and my own fall out of sight. Next morning, I determined how to find my way back to the village. While distressed by my encounter the night before, I hoped that Aycliffe would not concern himself further with me. He had treated me badly before. I was about to emerge from the woods when I caught sight of the authorities heading for the cottage I had recently shared with my mother. Alarmed, I watched from the woods as they destroyed our cottage, first with axes, then by fire. Why should they have done such a thing? I dare not show myself until I had more knowledge of my situation. That evening I heard the church bells toll. It called the villagers from all around. Once they had gathered they were beckoned into the church. I was longing to know what had been discussed. From my vantage point I saw the bailiff and the steward emerge from the manor house with other men from the village. All were armed and making ready for a search. My worst fears had come true: the village had been sent out to find me. I determined to hide myself until such time as I could make my way back to the village to talk to the one person I could trust: Father Quinel. I hid in the branches of an enormous tree. Two villagers passed beneath and remarked that “Asta’s son must have been driven mad by his mother’s death to have broken into the manor house to steal money.” I nearly fell from the tree. I was being accused of a theft I’d never committed. When I finally found my way in the dead of night into the village and roused Father Quinel, I asked him what would happen if I were caught. He said I’d been declared a wolf’s head. This meant I was considered not human and should be killed on sight. It seemed Father Quinel had much to tell me but was reluctant to do so. He did tell me, however, that when I was born, I’d been baptized with the name “Crispin.” “I was?” I cried. He said it was done in secret and that my mother begged him to tell no one. Then he asked me what I knew of my father. I replied only that he had died before I was born. He would not tell me more, but begged me to leave and find my way to a town where I could live as a free person. I knew nothing of other places. Father Quinel said I was to come back the next night. He would give me provisions for my journey and tell me more about my father. And he gave me the cross of lead that had been around my mother’s neck when she died. So I hid in the forest another night. The next night I made my way to the meeting place but was told that Father Quinel could not meet me. In reality, he himself was killed. Now there is nothing for me to do but run. I’ve never been beyond my own village, but now I must run for my life.