Weekly "GSF Booktalk"

The Great Stone Face (GSF) Book Award is sponsored by the Children's Librarians of New Hampshire and is given each year to an author whose book receives the most votes from 4th -6th graders throughout the state.  This year, members of the GSF Committee have written "booktalks" to spark interest in reading all 20 titles on the list of nominees.  I thought it would be fun to post one of their booktalks every week from now until the middle of March (when all 20 are posted)--just in time for voting during National Library Week in April!
Here is "GSF Booktalk" #1:

BUDDY
by M. H. Herlong

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)