Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	The Two Princesses of Bamarre
	Author:	Levine, Gail Carson
	Date Published:	2001
	Genre:	Fantasy
	Grade Level:	6 - 8
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh
	Awards:	Former Blue Spruce Award Nominee

Booktalk:
I'm no hero. My sister, Meryl, a year older then me is the hero. I'm Addie, the taller, dark complexioned, younger, cowardly sister. Meryl is the fair skinned, small compact bundle of energy. The brave, older sister. Meryl always looked after me. Our mother had died from the Gray Death when we were two and three. Our Father, the King, rarely visited. It was Meryl and I. We would play the Gray Death adventure. I was never afraid of the Gray Death like I was of a monster or spider that I could see and shiver over. I knew if I caught it (the gray death), that it would be within me, and I knew my interior. I was certain I could overcome any intruder there. I was always the Gray Death's victim, and I would act out the weakness of the disease and fall asleep on the floor and then rise up in the last, fever-induced stage, rushing to the fireplace to rub the ashes in to show the gray face that always predicted the end. I'd keep one eye on Meryl and her battle with the monsters, her adventures in the mountains and seas, and her sorcerer encounters. When she triumphed and found the cure, I'd slump to the floor. She would rush to me and rescue me in the knick of time. Meryl really did intend to search for the cure as soon as she was old enough and strong enough. When I was twelve, Trina, my chambermaid, contracted the Gray Death. Soon, she was taken to her family where, despite my suggestions to help her defeat the Death, she died. Rhys was our sorcerer. They were born when lightning strikes marble. That is to say, rarely. The sorcerer--man or woman---would emerge full grown, still glowing. He/she would look about him/her and then inward to learn what he/she was. Then he/she would rocket into the stormy sky and a spark of the flame would burn on his/her chest, sustaining him/her until death...some five hundred years hence. Incapable of sleep, sorcerers need only air to live, but may eat and drink for pleasure. They never get ill, but may die from accident or violence just as anyone else. During their first two hundred years, they are apprentices and live in the world. After that, they retire to their citadel and rarely leave it. Rhys became our friend, and when I was sixteen, he gave Meryl and I and Bella, our governess, presents. We resolved to return the favor. I gave him an embroidered pillow, for embroidery is one of my most precious talents. Bella gave him one of her doilies. Meryl decided she would declaim (recite) Drualt's battle with the dragon Yune. Meryl was a formidable declaimer, and was much in demand for her skills. It was her best declaimer ever...until the end, when Meryl began to curtsy and lost her balance. She didn't finish the epilogue, and I knew something was wrong. It must be a cold I thought, and made her go rest, When she was gone, Rhys told me. "It began today. She didn't have it yesterday. It happens that way. Princess Meryl...has the Gray Death."