| Booktalk
#1
"Part comedy, part love story,
part everything but the kitchen sink". So goes the sub-title.
Add to that "total delight"! Our tale begins when young Christian
is 6 years old and has run away from home. He is discovered hiding
in the woods by Edric, a kindly troll with a penchant for mixing up his
metaphors as in "beating one's head against a dead horse." Edric
adopts Christian and raises him as his own in his marvelous, magical crystal
cave. Christian is a problem-solver whose hobby is inventing useful
things of all sorts. When he grows to young manhood, he spends much
time gazing through his telescope at the castle across the river where
a young princess resides. Smitten at the sight of her, he gets up
his courage to initiate a correspondence via p-mail (p is for pigeon).
Princess Marigold replies and the adventure begins with Christian's crossing
the river at last to land a job as a servant at the palace. Even
though Marigold returns his affections, there are many hurdles to overcome.
Don't miss this funny, fantastical romp that will leave you feeling lighter
than air. (New Hampshire
Great Stone Face Committee)
Booktalk #2
Edric the Troll is quite content
with his life in the forest. He makes a pretty good living picking
up the things that other drop while passing through the woods. But
one day, what is left behind is a young boy. Edric is determined
to return the boy to his family but the boy tells tales of mistreatment
and says he doesn't want to go back. Knowing that the boy should
go back, Edric nonetheless allows him to stay. As the years go by,
they become quite attached to each other. The boy, Christian, comes
to think of Ed as a father. Christian is a curious lad who loves
to invent things. Some times his inventions work and some times they
don't. One thing that Christian loves to do is look through his telescope
and watch life at the castle. Especially Princess Marigold.
He's watched her for years and even been able to strike up a long distance
friendship with her. Will he ever be able to meet her? And
if he does, would she even talk to a commoner?
Booktalk #3
In Once Upon a Marigold by
Jean Ferris, the reader learns about the lives, abilities, politics, and
traditions of trolls, the hazards of a world governed by too many rules,
and that an ambitious mother can be as dangerous as a wicked step-mother.
All the anticipated elements of the fantasy fairy tale are here, but a
humorous twist makes this a more thought-provoking and entertaining read
than most “happily ever after “ romances.
Marge Erickson Freeburn
(Colorado Blue
Spruce Children's Award)
Booktalk #4
My dad is a troll. Well, he’s
not my real dad, but he found me hiding in the forest when I was just a
little guy. I’d run away from home. I knew my name was Christian, but all
I knew about my parents was that their names were Father and Mother, and
Ed couldn’t figure out how to return me to my real home without getting
himself into a lot of trouble. So he took me in, got to liking me, and
raised me in his cave in the forest, along with the dogs, Bub and Cate.
Ed’s big passion in life is trying to convince the members of the LEFT
Association (LEFT stands for Leprechauns, Elves, Fairies, and Trolls) that
Queen Mab’s tooth fairy monopoly should be broken up. Queen Mab is just
unbelievably bad at reading maps, is forgetful and overworked.
We live in King Swithbert’s
kingdom. He’s a decent sort. Mostly concerned with keeping folks in his
kingdom happy. The one person in his kingdom who’s the most difficult to
please is his wife, Queen Olympia. She’s a control freak, wanting to increase
her power by marrying her 4 princesses to the right princes, in order to
expand her sphere of influence. The three blond triplets were easily married
to the right guys. This only left Queen Olympia with the troubling problem
of Princess Marigold. For one thing, a fairy had given as a birth-gift
to Marigold the gift of sensitivity to the thoughts and feelings of others.
The birth fairy overdid it, however, so that Marigold can actually know
the thoughts of others just by touching them. So the gift turned out to
be a curse because very few people wanted to touch Marigold. Certainly
her mother never touched her. And this meant very few eligible suitors
could be found for Marigold.
How do I know all this? Well,
I’ve been watching! I’m an inventor of sorts. I’ve invented an elevator
which delivers water to the cave from the river, and boomerang arrows (kind
of handy when you miss your target), rutabaga parfaits (that one didn’t
go over so well), a telescope, and p-mail. What’s p-mail, you ask? Well,
pigeon-mail, of course. I’ve spent a lot of my time using my telescope
to watch the castle which is across the river from our cave. I know all
about King Swithbert, Queen Olympia, and the three triplets. But most of
all, I watch Marigold. I feel like I know Marigold. I see that no one but
King Swithbert ever touches her. I feel that she’s lonely and unhappy.
And I want to get her know better.
So I devised a little canister
that fits on Walter the pigeon’s leg, and I trained Walter to fly to a
destination, wait for a reply and fly home again. Now Marigold and I have
been communicating via p-mail. We both love Greek myths, we trade bad jokes,
and I hear all about her attempts to foil Queen Olympia’s attempts to marry
her to one horrible suitor after another. But this can’t go on forever.
Soon Queen Olympia will succeed. She’s determined to have Marigold out
of her way. I’m not sure there’s anything I can do, but it’s time for me
to try.
With lots of mixed feelings
and none of us knowing what to say or do, I leave Ed and the dogs, cross
the river and take a job as a squire, working in the stables at the castle.
Now I’m close to Marigold, King Swithbert, and Queen Olympia. And things
are worse than I thought. Queen Olympia really is willing to do anything,
even bump off her own family, to have her way.
Susan Bartel (Colorado
Blue Spruce Children's Award)
Booktalk #5
Ed the troll is happily living
a quiet life in the forest until he finds a bossy six year old who forces
him to take him to live in the forest – in Ed’s cave no less! Ed thought
this would only last a day or two, but ten years later Ed can’t imagine
life without his adopted son. After all, Christian, with his wild inventions
and easygoing ways has really turned the old cave into a home. Ed’s worked
hard to teach Christian everything he needs to know, but he forgot to warn
him about girls! So when Christian sees a lonely princess through his telescope
– he can’t help but fall in love. Christian sends her a message via carrier
pigeon, and soon Christian and Marigold are great friends, communicating
almost daily through “p-mail.” Then Christian decides he needs to meet
Marigold in person, so against Ed’s wishes, he leaves the forest and finds
a job working at Marigold’s castle. But how is Christian, a lowly servant,
supposed to talk to a princess?! He also doesn’t figure on Marigold’s horrible
fiancée, a queen plotting double murder, and a kindly king who’s
close to death. Why is love so complicated!
Prepared by: Amanda
LeBlanc for South
Carolina Junior Book Award 2005
Booktalk #6
"Once Upon A Marigold" was
a hot book that was kind of like a Sleeping Beauty story without Sleeping
Beauty. The book starts out with a troll named Edric, going through the
woods, looking for stuff people had dropped or lost, when his two dogs,
Beelzebub and Hecate, notice something in the bushes. So they lead Edric
over to them and out pops a little boy, about six years old. He tells Ed
that his name is Christian and that he doesn't want to go back home because
there are too many rules there. Of course Ed doesn't want the little boy,
but allows Chris to come home with him. When they arrive, Chris tells Ed
if he tries to find his parents, he will tell them that Ed was going to
hold him for ransom and after he got the money, he was going to kill him.
Ed ain't want him to do that so he said he could stay. After that the book
goes on to Part Two. All I am going to say about this part is that it's
interesting and fast-paced. If you want to know what happens, I suggest
you check out the book. (Nadia Smith, nadiahcms2009@yahoo.com,
Hertford County Middle School Library) |
