Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Straw into Gold
	Author:	Schmidt, Gary D.
	Date Published:	2001
	Genre:	Retold Fairy Tales
	Grade Level:	6 - 9
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
I had waited for this day for as long as I could remember. The day I would finally leave the clearing in which I had been raised by my da and travel to the great city of Wolverham to see the procession of the king to celebrate his victory over the rebels. I was so excited, and da was so ... well, just da. Still talking in riddles to me as if talking about someone else. Finally, though, we arrived at the city. And found a place on the bridge to watch the procession. And watched the king and the twelve Great Lords, and then the queen...riding alone, her eyes on her hands on the reins, and so quiet and small that the crowd stilled as she rode by. And the crowd cheered again for the king's servants who scattered coins as they passed. And then the black horse with the black hooded cold-eyed man of Fear, followed by soldiers leading the rebels who staggered behind in their manacled hands and fettered feet. The men kept to the outside trying to shield the women from the rubbish the crowd threw. And the hatred of the crowd. At the end of the crowd walked a boy about my edge holding two young girls protectively, all covered in filth. And, he was blind. I vomited until I could hardly breath, trying to shut out the sight of his blinded eyes. Then the procession passed and the crowd surged and pushed me with it into the courtyard in front of the castle. Separated from da. The king gave a strident speech about treason and the sentence of the traitors. "Death! Hanging!" came the response from the mob. And then the king asked if there were any who would plead for mercy for the rebels..."No. Not a one, No one, No one," came the crowd's response. Then the queen stepped forward and whispered, "I will plead." "One against so many," called the king. "Is there another of you, people of Wolverham? ...Who would stand with the rebels..." I felt the eyes of the blind boy upon ME! I moved before I even thought, and the words came as if of their own volition..."I plead for them," I said softly. The king was irate and sent the queen back to the Abbey at which she had lived for many years. I was given seven days to answer a riddle. "What fills a hand fuller than a skein of gold?" Find the answer, and the rebels would be spared. Not find the answer, and they would be hanged and my life forfeit along with theirs. Oh, and I was given someone to help me in my quest. Someone to guide and to lead, to seek out that which is hidden. I was given the blind boy to accompany me!