Booktalks Quick and Simple

	Delaney, Michael. THE GREAT SOCKATHON New York : Dutton Children’s Books, 2004 IL 3-6, RL 5.9 ISBN 0525468560
Click on the book to read Amazon reviews	Sabrina is just like any normal girl who is looking to a long summer of fun. That plan changes one night in June when she goes to the gazebo for some time to think. While talking with her friend Megan, she hears the voice up in Old Balmy of a young girl who begs, “Help me!” It turns out that the town has decided to cut down the old historical Balm of Gilead tree because it is rotten on the inside. There is one complication, however. It seems that over seventy years ago Eliza Baker fell from the tree and died. Now, she and her three friends, Megan, Connie, and Daisy have to figure out a way to save the tree. They decide to have a Sockathon, where people send in mismatched socks with donations. They staple them all together and string them around town. Amazing things happen that summer as a result of that one small voice. See how a tree strengthens the girls’ friendship, brings a town closer together, and even mellows out the meanest woman in town. (Prepared by Kitt Lisenby, SCASL Children’s Book Awards)
	SUBJECTS: Trees -- Fiction. Fund raising -- Fiction. Girls -- Fiction. Ghosts -- Fiction.

Sabrina is just like any normal girl who is looking to a long summer of fun. That plan changes one night in June when she goes to the gazebo for some time to think. While talking with her friend Megan, she hears the voice up in Old Balmy of a young girl who begs, “Help me!” It turns out that the town has decided to cut down the old historical Balm of Gilead tree because it is rotten on the inside. There is one complication, however. It seems that over seventy years ago Eliza Baker fell from the tree and died. Now, she and her three friends, Megan, Connie, and Daisy have to figure out a way to save the tree. They decide to have a Sockathon, where people send in mismatched socks with donations. They staple them all together and string them around town. Amazing things happen that summer as a result of that one small voice. See how a tree strengthens the girls’ friendship, brings a town closer together, and even mellows out the meanest woman in town. (Prepared by Kitt Lisenby, SCASL Children’s Book Awards)