Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Big Mouth and Ugly Girl
	Author:	Oates, Joyce Carol
	Date Published:	2002
	Genre:	Real Life
	Grade Level:	6 - 12
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
It was a Thursday in January when they came for me, fifth period, my study period at Rocky River High. Mr. Weinberg was in charge that day, and answered the door in his usual good-natured manner. We were absorbed in revisions for the play I was working on and hadn't paid any attention until my name was called. It was two suits, dark with white shirts and plain neckties. They definitely weren't smiling, and they wanted me. "Is something w-wrong?" I stuttered. Had something happened to my parents? Or to my little sister? "What---is it?" I asked as they escorted me out of the room. "Son, you know why we're here," One of them said. But, I didn't. We'd lost the game that afternoon...to a team we should have beaten. Oh, they were crafty and smart, but we should have beaten them. But, we lost, and that was all that mattered. Which meant that I'd lost the game. Ugly girl had screwed up. I was the star, the outspoken one, the scorer, but not much of a team player. I heard the talk and the feelings behind the talk. It was MY fault, all of it. I waited until everyone else had left the showers and then got dressed and headed out. Only to discover that a crowd was standing by the rear entrance talking together in low, excited voices. They treated me as if the game hadn't even happened. Almost like, for once, I belonged. And, I got into it for a while. Oh, nobody knew for certain what it was that had happened...a bomb, a threat, a boy had brought a handgun to school, a .22 rifle, or a machine gun. There had been armed cops, or a swat team...rumor after rumor with nothing concrete. Then we heard that it was Matt Donaghy, a junior, who had threatened to blow up the school and 'massacre' as many people as he could and had been arrested. Matt Donaghy?! Whom I'd been in school with since fifth grade? He was popular, but not at the center of a clique. He seemed to have lots of friends and girls liked him. He was a "wise guy" type, but never mean or malicious. I'd never even heard him say anything sarcastic that I could recall. And, he was a class officer. But, a "reliable source" reported that two senior girls had heard Matt talking in the cafeteria at lunchtime, saying he was going to blow up the school, and they had reported him. That was ridiculous. It was NOT true. I knew, because I had heard it too, and anybody with half a brain (obviously more than the girls possessed together) would have known that what Matt and his friends were talking about meant exactly the opposite of what the nitwit senior girls had reported. Matt and I weren't exactly friends, but I wasn't about to let some idiots ruin his life by misinterpretation.