Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Spellfall
	Author:	Roberts, Katherine
	Date Published:	2001
	Genre:	Fantasy
	Grade Level:	7 - 12
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
As I picked up the crumpled wrapper, I heard a voice whisper..."Innocent enough to crawl through the Thrallstone." I looked around, but all I could see was the recycling vinsand people hurrying between the cars and supermarket, or driving around...and the rain. The wrapper was warm and waxy and looked sorta like a hologram--shifting colors all over. I stuffed it into my windbreaker pocket, careful not to squash Itsy, my pet spider, in her matchbox. Then, I started feeding the empty beer bottles into the recyclying bin--two less than last week...was dad cutting back? "Could you read this sign for me, my dear?" asked the old man from the shadow of one of the bins. "Can't see as well as I used to," he continued. It was a new bin with some curly silver letters at the bottom. SPELL BANK it said. "I can't see a sign," I said, but the man didn't believe me. "What are you afraid of? That I'll tell on you? You and I are of the same blood, the ancient blood that sees what men do not. That's why I asked you to read the sign for me. It was a test--which you passed, by the way. Most people can't see the spell bank at all." Obviously he was crazy! I ran, as he tried to hook me with his stick and asked for the 'spell'--the paper I had picked up?--, right into traffic (screeches of tires and crunching of metal) and into the store where my stepmom and -brother were. Mom had me off looking for salt (you know how they always move things around in the supermarket) when Tim (my stepbrother) found me and tried to find what I had in my pocket. He dragged my hand out of my pocket and tried to pry my fingers apart when a strange redheaded boy with desperate eyes crept closer. My hand opened, the wrapper (not Itsy) fell to the floor, the redheaded boy dove for it. We both grabed for it. "Please," he whispered, "If you don't let me have it, he'l ---." There was a blinding purple flash. The boy let go and vanished through the overturned shopping carts. I rose among the confusion and joined Julie (stepmom) and Time at the checkout. It wasn't until we were halfway home until I learned that Itsy had escaped.