Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Breaking the Fall
	Author:	Cadnum, Michael
	Date Published:	1992
	Genre:	Real Life
	Grade Level:	7 - 12
	Booktalker:	Vickie Pasicnyuk

Booktalk:
SHH! You have to hold your breath. That’s how the game is played. And when you have to breathe, you must breathe so slowly that no one, not even someone close enough to touch you, can hear. You have to hold your breath, when you hold your breath, and you don’t move at all, you can be invisible, like a ghost. It’s important to the game. The game is quite simple really Jared to told Stanley. You slip into a house and you take something. Just two rules. First the house must be occupied, and second whatever you take must come from the bedroom, where they’re sleeping. Jared had done it many times, with little trophies littering his room, a gold pen, a cigarette lighter, and some knick-knacks. “ We aren’t thieves” he explained. “We aren’t really taking anything important. Just something to prove you’d been there. It’s a game most people would be too scared to contemplate,” Jared said. “ But it makes you feel so alive.” Stanley wants to feel alive. His grades are slipping, and he’s off the baseball team, since he hurt his leg. He’s dead and bored and boring inside. He wants to feel alive, to feel the exhilaration of fear and victory. Jared bragged about. He’ll play the game. Jared laughed but Stanley would prove it to him. He could do it too.