| Booktalk
#1
Martha is looking forward to
spending the summer at her grandmother's house at the ocean. But
then came the knock on the door. A woman who Martha didn't know is
standing there. The woman is Olive Barstow's mother. Olive
has died and in her journal, she wrote about Martha and how she wanted
to be friends with her. Martha hardly knew Olive and wonders why
Olive would want to be her friend. Throughout the summer at the beach,
Martha explores her feelings for Olive, for her grandmother who may be
dying and the people next door.
Booktalk #2
“She is the nicest person in
my whole entire class.” That's what Olive wrote about me in her journal.
The page her mother handed to me on my front doorstep before thanking me
and walking away. My name is Martha. I knew who Olive was, but I didn't
really know her. Now I won't be able to. She's dead.
Killed in a bike accident at 12. And I'm stuck here at my grandmother's
house on the ocean for summer vacation. Olive wanted to see the ocean.
Why would she write about me? She also wanted to be a writer.
I do too. It’s weird how much we have… or had in common. I
wonder if she would think the same about other things that I think about
too, like about growing old and boys? I wonder. Olive’s Ocean
by Kevin Henkes. (Meg Torrens, megtorrens@yahoo.com,
Palmetto Bays Elementary, Myrtle Beach SC) |
