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 13 Clocks by James Thurber

[You'll begin this booktalk by showing the bleak picture of the castle, shown in some editions on the front pastedown endpaper.]

Would you want to live here?

Would you like to live in this castle? [Wait for responses.] Why not? Right, it's creepy. It's cold, gloomy, dark, lonely, and time has stopped there. Not a fun place to live. The only thing I like about this castle is that it has a hidden door which leads to a secret stairway which opens in on a room called the oak room. But it's really, really dark in there, and by "there," I mean everywhere in the castle. Even creepier, you sometimes hear laughter in the dark. It's this evil creature called the Todal. I'll tell you more about him in a minute.

The Duke is the creepy seated man.

The Duke is what's wrong with this castle. He's an evil, whiny, vicious, lying man with cold hands and a cold heart. He has been cruel to animals, and cruel to people, as well. His niece, Saralinda, is beautiful but kind of spaced out. I can't tell you why. The Duke stopped time and all the clocks in the castle are stuck on ten to five. It's called being stuck in Then. It's always Then, and never Now. That must be incredibly boring and kind of sad.

There are other characters you'll meet, but I did promise to tell you about the Todal. He looks like a blob of glup; he smells of old, unopened rooms; and he makes a sound like rabbits screaming. The Todal is waiting for the Duke to fail.

When the castle gets a human visitor -- his name is Xingu -- we find out he has several secrets about him, and he seems kind and good. But can he bring about the Duke's downfall? Or, even worse, the Todal's?

The 13 Clocks by James Thurber. 124 pages. 1950/reprint: The New York Review Children's Collection. Booktalk to intermediate grades, middle school.

Booktalk: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda; Darth Paper Strikes Back

I wrote a booktalk for Origami Yoda a while ago. It's a Virginia Readers' Choice for 2011-2012, and the link is here: http://booktalkthree.blogspot.com/2010/12/misfits-booktalk-2.html

The sequel, Darth Paper Strike Back, is just as good. Here's the booktalk:

Whenever there’s a force for good – Dwight and Origami Yoda – there’s also a force for evil. In this case, it’s Harvey. Seventh grade has barely started, and Harvey has already unleashed the power of the Dark Side, in the form of his own origami finger puppet: Darth Paper. Harvey’s made it his mission to bring Dwight down, and he’s quite obvious about it. His minion Darth Paper looks like Darth Vader, and even has own little pink lightsaber. In order to stop Harvey and to prevent Dwight from being sent to a school for really bad kids, Tommy and the others start a case file. But it may not be enough. Origami Yoda seems to be losing it. A popular girl named Jen (who believes in Origami Yoda) asked him for advice, and all Origami Yoda could tell her was, “Zero Hour comes. Prepare to meet your doom!” You could get kicked out of school for saying such things! Is Origami Yoda actually helping Harvey and Darth bring about his own downfall? Dwight’s friends are starting to wonder. Darth Paper Strikes Back: An Origami Yoda Book by Tom Angleberger.

Darth Paper Strikes Back: An Origami Yoda Book by Tom Angleberger. 159 p. 2011: Amulet Books. Booktalk to intermediate grades, middle school.