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Nancy Keane's | Booktalks -- Quick and Simple | |
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Herlong, M H.
BUDDY New York : Viking, 2012 IL 5-8, RL 3.9 ISBN 0670014036 (2 booktalks) |
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Booktalk #1 My name is Tyrone Elijah Roberts but everybody calls me “Li’l T”. I’m twelve and I live in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana. I’ve wanted a dog since the day I was born. So one spring morning, we are on our way to church when “WHAM” we hit a dog. We take the dog to the vet and his leg is broken so bad that they have to cut it off. So that’s how I got my dog Buddy. My Buddy. Buddy needed a lot of care and encouragement like any dog with only three legs would need, but he turned into one real good dog. I worked hard mowing lawns all summer to help pay for Buddy’s food and care, but then along came Hurricane Katrina. We had to evacuate the city and there was no room in the car for Buddy. I thought we would just be gone a couple days so we left Buddy on the second floor with food and water. Well as you know, Katrina hit the ninth ward in New Orleans real bad. Our house was surrounded by a lake of dark, polluted water. I didn’t get to go back to check our house until weeks later. When my Daddy and I got there, our house had a big black “X” on it which means that is was searched and somebody wrote “one dog” too. Buddy wasn’t there. Well, I sure hope you will read my story to find out all the rest! (Booktalk written by Lorreen Keating- GSF Committee/North Hampton Public Library) Booktalk #2 Twelve-year-old Li’l T, lives with his parents and beloved grandfather in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans. They have very little money but their family is filled with love. Li’l T has wanted a dog for as long as he can remember, so when his father accidentally hits a stray dog with his car, Li’l T adopts the injured animal and names him Buddy. The two become best friends but Hurricane Katrina’s ominous approach forces the family to evacuate to stay with family in Mississippi. There is no room for the family and Buddy in the car. Believing they will be gone for only two days, they leave him with food and water on the second floor of their home. Hurricane Katrina is far more destructive than anyone expects and when the family is finally allowed to return, the house is still standing, but Buddy is missing. The only clue to his fate is a water-stained, incomplete toll-free telephone number from his rescuers. Li’l T is devastated and fears he will never find Buddy. But Li’l T will not give up and searches any way he can for his beloved friend. Readers will figure out the eventual ending long before the conclusion of the book, but Herlong has a final twist at the end that takes this story to a completely differently level. (South Carolina Children's Book Award nominee, 2015 Prepared by: Leslie Cooper, St. Andrews School of Math and Science, leslie_cooper@charleston.k12.sc.us) |
| SUBJECTS: Family life -- Louisiana -- Fiction. Dogs -- Fiction. Hurricane Katrina, 2005 -- Fiction. African Americans -- Fiction. Lost and found possessions -- Fiction. New Orleans (La.) -- Fiction. |
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