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Booktalking Colorado Full Record:
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Title: |
Alosha |
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Author: |
Pike, Christopher |
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Date Published: |
2004 |
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Genre: |
Fantasy |
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Grade Level: |
6 - 8 |
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Booktalker: |
Sam Marsh |
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Booktalk:
Even though she knew she was not going to save a single tree from the lumberjacks, Ali was determined to make the men feel bad about it and force them to think twice before doing it again. But her best friend Cindy, couldn't be coaxed out of bed to join her. So, she headed up the mountain by herself on her bike. after stopping at Sam's Subs for nourishment. But a strange little man by the name of Paddy O’Connell talked her out of her sandwich before she could ride out of the parking lot. When he left and she reached for her remaining money to buy another sandwich, she found only empty pockets.
On her way to the lumberjack sites, she found a roadblock and a cardboard no trespassing sign, which she took down. But, before she could move her bike around the roadblock, she heard a truck approaching. The drive, Ted Wilson who she knew as friendly and fair, talked to her about how not everything was fair and that all she could accomplish as the logging camp was to annoy the workers and force one of them to drive her down the mountain to avoid her being hurt by the trucks barreling down with full loads.
Reluctantly, Ali agreed not to go any further on the road. But, once Ted drove on up the road, Ali decided to cut through the forest. She had grown up there and it would be a nice change to walk rather than pedal. It was pleasant to feel the earth beneath her soles as he hiked along. And beautiful.
But, the she got an overpowering feeling of being watched...and being stalked, but couldn't see anyone. She pulled off her white sweater and replaced it with her olive poncho when he heard a branch break. She dropped her sweater and ran toward the logging camp. Eventually, she ended up at a cliff with the logging camp about a half-mile away. She headed North and ended up on a trail halfway up another cliff. Then, she felt a pebble fall from above, and looking up saw a dark shape much larger and hairier than a man walking along the cliff. A minute later, an avalanche of rocks came crashing down. She threw herself into a small hollow in the side of the cliff, covering her head with her arms.
When the rocks quit falling, she realized she was buried alive. The monsters didn't want to eat her, they simply wanted her dead. And there was no one who knew where she was.
Sam Marsh November, 2004 for Spring, 2005
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