Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Tree Girl
	Author:	Barron, T. A.
	Date Published:	2001
	Genre:	Fantasy
	Grade Level:	6 - 9
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
"She sang to me, and danced for hours even into the night." Anna said of her mother to old Master Burl the great fir that she had climbed and shared her life with since she could remember. The tree creaked and groaned in the wind. Occasionally, a branch would swat her on the bottom when she was too cheeky...or so she believed. And, when the wind rustled its needles, it would seem to Anna that it shook with laughter. Old Master Burl was her closest, best, and only friend. The tree sat at the side of the cottage of Master Mellwyn with whom Anna lived. He was the only other person that Anna knew, and he was most often at sea, earning their meager living. So, Anna was a friend with the tree, and the smaller denizens of its branches, the squirrels and birds that visited her friend. The cottage was near the ocean, with the forest behind her. Master Mellwyn warned her about the forest ghouls that lived in the forest and that it was bad luck to even look at it. But, Anna just couldn't keep herself from looking at the forest, and especially the great ridge that rose beyond its farthest edge...and the single High Willow that grew there in unbroken solitude. It seemed to call to her, and she felt a yearning to journey to that high point to see for herself. To somehow fly across the forest to touch its bark, branches, to hear its leaves rustle...even to climb... Cheeeyup. Cheeeyup...the cry came again from the tree. Anna climbed the tree, and finally spotted the small tattered nest and reached for it. Just as she overextended and started to fall, a sharp breeze stirred Old Burl, and one of the branches smacked her side, knocking her upright again. She finally grasped the small bowl of straw and rescued the scrawny sparrow it contained. He was a fighter, despite her size, and nipped her when she tried to stroke his wing. To encourage him in his recovery, she named him Eagle, and he became an ever-present presence in her rangings. Then, one day her basket kept moving from where she left it. Another day, her sandals disappeared. Another day, she noticed some marks on the wet sand, which close inspection showed to be a drawing of the master's face. Then, while talking with Eagle about it, a sharp wind whipped Anna's sunbonnet off her head and it landed just inside the forest. Just as Anna was about to reach it, a new gust snatched it and carried it farther into the forest. Slowly, hesitantly, Anna entered the forest, Eagle nervously clutching her shoulder.