Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Memory Boy
	Author:	Weaver, Will
	Date Published:	2001
	Genre:	Sci-Fi
	Grade Level:	6 - 10
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
July 3 2008, a perfect time for leaving, a steady breeze from the south, and enough moonlight. Sister Sarah wasn’t at all convinced about the necessity; “Shut up, Miles,” and “I’m not leaving,” she said. But we had all talked about it, and in the end, she shut her mouth and boarded the Ali Princess with mom and dad and me. And, we were off…through the softly falling volcanic ash. Off for our cabin in the hills. Off until things improved, and the climate was back to normal, and the ash settled down and we could really see the sun again, and grow crops, and cars could run without adding to the pollution in the atmosphere. It had started two years earlier on February 10, 2006. Mount Rainier had exploded (again) followed by Mount Adams and several small volcanoes in between…bigger than any of the forecasts…fifty times bigger than Mount Saint Helens. Not enough to keep us out of school, of our “oral-history” project in social studies. I was always either the math whiz—hence the “memory boy’ moniker—or the class troublemaker and clown. Mr. Litzke. Our social-studies teacher obviously decided to get even with me on the oral-history project. He teamed me up with Mr. Kurz at the Buena Vista nursing home. Mr. Kurz was their designated troublemaker. He was the only one who didn’t show up. Said he hated kids. I decided I might even like him. Anyone who hated ninth graders couldn’t be all bad. He’d locked and barricaded himself in his room, but the nurse unlocked the door and eventually managed to push it open. Then he left me there. It took awhile, but what Mr. Litzke didn’t understand is that two troublemakers just might have something in common. Eventually we hit it off. Mr. Kurz had lived a small cabin in the woods by himself. He was full of common sense survival skills. He had only ended up in the nursing home because he had slipped once and let it be known to his relatives that he had money, and then had shown up at his sister’s funeral in the city. He wanted to return to his cabin, but his relatives had other ideas. We sat and talked while I worked on reconditioning skateboards for resale and he helped with suggestions and told me about his life. In the paper I wrote, I changed a few things to make it more exciting, and Mr. Litzke got all upset and even went to talk to Mr. Kurz. I don’t know what he told Litzke, but I got an A on the paper. I meant to go back to see Mr. Kurz afterwards, but with the crisis and school and all, he had died by the time I returned. None of his relatives were interested in him once they received their inheritance, so he had been cremated and his ashes left in his room—now converted into a storeroom. Mr. Kurz had asked for his ashes to be shaken into a river, but had never told them which river. From our talks, I knew which river he meant and volunteered to do the honors, so the nurse let me take the ashes. That's how our belongings included the jar of Mr. Kurz' ashes. But, it was the things he had taught me about surviving that was to be Mr. Kurz’ legacy to me in the hard times we would face aboard the Ali Princess.