Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee (Booktalk)

Ophelia isn't supposed to walk through the museum alone. It's got hundreds and hundreds and rooms: it's huge and chilly and she doesn't know her way around. But her father works there now, and she's curious.

She walks into a little gallery. It's a got a rope blocking it, but she goes under the rope. There are no museum guards in there, and it's very still and quiet.

The room has an empty, peculiar smell. She goes through a closed door, which leads into another little room. It has a faded mural of mountains and a blue sea and a boy with a sword. Above this scene is painted the phrase, "The Marvelous Boy."

If you look closely enough at the painted mural, you'll see a tiny door: it's part of the blue sea in the painting. There's a tiny keyhole there, and Ophelia looks through it.

There is a large blue-green eye looking back at her!

Museums are full of dead things from the past, but this one has a live boy concealed in an obscure room.

And he doesn't know his own name.

Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee. 228 p. Knopf: 2014. Booktalk to grades 4-8.

Book talk: The Princess and the Pig by Jonathan Emmett

In fairy tales, there are good queens and bad queens. 

In this fairy tale, the queen is completely stupid. {Show page 4}. When looking at her new baby girl, stupid queen holds her by the edge of the tower. Mistake #1. Then she decides her new baby girl needs a diaper change, so she leaves her alone to get a nanny to do it. Mistake #2. Then she doesn’t even notice when her own daughter falls off the edge of a very, very high tower. Mistake #3. Poor baby. Stupid, stupid queen.

Luckily, a poor farmer with a soft cart of straw was below. In his cart he had a little pink pig which no one would buy. Down comes baby, hits the cart, and up goes the pig, landing in the baby’s cradle. I know, it’s a fairy tale. But it really happened.

So now we have a stupid queen with a pig in her baby’s cradle, and a poor farmer with a princess baby in his straw cart. A recipe for disaster, right? But who do you think is the better parent…the stupid queen or the poor farmer? If you guessed the poor farmer, you’re right. That princess baby probably got a good set of parents instead of an idiot royal pair.

Wait until you see how the pig acts when she gets older [show example page/s]…what a disaster!

The Princess and the Pig by Jonathan Emmett, illustrated by Poly Bernatene. Unpaged. Walker and Company, 2011. Booktalk to K-2.

Book talk: I Am So Strong by Mario Ramos

The big bad wolf had a very high opinion of himself. He thought he was the fiercest, scariest, strongest creature in the woods.

 After all, he is the bad bad wolf, right?

So he strolled through the forest demanding that others tell him how strong he was. 

On the way, he met a very small rabbit, Little Red Riding Hood, 

the three little pigs, and the seven dwarves. I have this nagging feeling I'm forgetting someone, though. Each one told him how strong he was, probably because none wants to get eaten by the big bad wolf.

Oh, shoot. There was one other encounter which may have changed things - really, really changed things. But who is bigger and badder than the big bad wolf?

I Am So Strong by Mario Ramos. Unpaged. 2011: Gecko Press. Booktalk to K-2.

Book talk: The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz

What do pigs have in common with the martial arts? Have you ever seen a pig practice karate or jujitsu? No?! 

Well, you've heard the classic story of the three pigs and the big bad wolf, right? You've never heard the funny martial arts version? What a shame. It's called The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz.

The three little pigs were fed up with the wolf and his threats, so each one enrolled in a different form of martial arts: Pig 1 took aikido, Pig 2 took jujitsu, and Pig 3 took karate. Although these were determined pigs, not all of them actually stuck to and practiced their martial arts skills, though. You have to practice this stuff. There's no getting around it, seriously.

Luckily, one of the pigs practiced, but I can't tell you which one. And I can't tell you what happened when this pig got called "bacon" to his or her face. You don't mess with a ninja pig, and I don't care if you are the big bad wolf.

The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz, illustrated by Dan Santat. Unpaged. 2012. Booktalk to K-2.

Book talk: The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School (Virginia Readers' Choice, 2013-2014)

[For this booktalk, you’ll be acting out one scene from the story. You’ll need a whistle or a baseball hat (something coach-like) and a ball – a soccer ball or anything comparable – and a little paper gingerbread man, missing part of his foot.]

Hi, I’m the coach of the elementary school just down the road, and kids lose stuff in gym class all the time. Just today I found the oddest thing in the world stuck to a soccer ball. I was just bouncing this soccer ball and all of a sudden it started making noises. I looked down, and guess what?

There was a cookie stuck to my soccer ball! And it spoke to me!

“I’m the gingerbread man, and I’m trying to find / the children who made me, but left me behind.”

What kind of children would leave behind a gingerbread man?

So, being the good coach that I am, I advised him to run after the kids, but the story keeps getting weirder and weirder.

The poor little gingerbread man had lost his toe! So he looked for it and finally found it, and he went off limping to the nurse’s office. Gee…I hope he’s okay. I felt sorry for the poor little fellow. Hey, have you seen him lately? I wonder where he is now?

The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray, illustrated by Mike Lowery. Unpaged. 2011: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Virginia Readers’ Choice, 2013-2014. Booktalk to primary grades.

Gingerbread Man Loose in the School