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Booktalking Colorado Full Record:
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Title: |
Wild Orchid |
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Author: |
Beverely Brenna |
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Genre: |
Real Life |
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Grade Level: |
6 -12 |
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Booktalker: |
Tara Cannon |
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Booktalk:
Hi. My name is Taylor Jane Simon. I have a particular form of autism called Asperger’s Syndrome. When I was ten, the doctor told my mother diagnosis, and when I was eleven, she told me, “I think you’re old enough to know.” They told me I had to come talk to you today about my book…it’s not really my book, it’s my journal. I have my English teacher to thank for the idea of keeping this journal. My ex-English teacher, I mean. School and the future are a ten on the scale of scary thoughts, and I try not to dwell on them, but when Mrs. Thomson was giving me an oral exam, I started unloading some of my grief about the future. My oral exam was on The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I had to do an oral exam because, on the written exam, the teacher asked us to think about the ending and draw our own conclusions. I drew stuff all over the page and she said that wasn’t what she had intended. She said that she had meant for us to write an essay to answer what might happen next. Usually I am very good at writing essays, and I was disappointed not have gotten to write this one. I would rather write an essay than do any other kind of writing. I would even rather write an essay than talk. Anyway, she advised me to keep a journal and said that sometimes it feels good to let off steam. I said I didn’t know what that meant, and she said it meant that sometimes writing stuff down makes you feel better.
I’m not good at talking to people so I’m just going to read you something from my journal. I wrote this when I found out that I had to go to Prince Albert National Park to spend the summer with my mother and her boyfriend.
Read Pages: 9-10
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