Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	The Secret Life of Bees
	Author:	Kidd, Sue Monk
	Date Published:	2002
	Genre:	Real Life
	Grade Level:	6 - 12
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh
	Awards:	Former Blue Spruce Award Nominee

Booktalk:
Grits and Good old T-Ray. My father and his favorite punishment! He'd sprinkle grits on the floor and have me get down on my hands and knees and stay there until he figured I'd done enough to suit the crime. I just thought that was the way things were done, and didn't think twice about it anymore. I'd learned to suffer through and go on with my life. Then came the time when I accompanied Rosaleen into town to vote. The civil rights act had just passed, and it was her first chance to vote. But, when the white trash started making comments and Rosaleen lost her temper and spilt tobacco juice over their feet...welllll...we ended up in jail, with Rosaleen beat up pretty bad. T-Ray came and bail me out, and it was grits time. A little history. My mom died when I was about four, and T-Ray, was left to raise me. Actually, Rosaleen did more of the raising of me. T-Ray hired her to care for me. My mom had run off and come back and was packing up some things when T-Ray had barged in and they started yell'n and mom picked up a gun, and then the gun was on the floor and they were yell'n more and I picked up the gun...and...there was an explosion, and that's all I remember. But now, Rosaleen was in jail and T-Ray said that likely one of those she'd 'offended' was likely to kill her, and so I decided that I needed to get her out of there. I also decided that I'd had enough of T-Ray at age 14, and that we'd both be better off living somewhere else. One of the few possessions I still had from my mother was a picture with the words Tiburon, South Carolina written on the back. She must have been to Tiburon, so maybe they'd know something about her there. I had a destination. Now all I had to do was get Rosaleen out. When I went to the jail, she'd been beaten once again to the point that she'd been transferred to the hospital. I told good stories, and was able to talk my way in to see her. Then, it was a simple matter of an emergency phone call to the deputy on duty, disguising my voice and getting him out of the way. Then all I had to do was convince Rosaleen to follow me out of the hospital and into our future...and the bees.