Book Talk Reflection 

My principal recommended ​Scythe, s

​ o​ ​I immediately “Amazon 

Primed” it, having been intrigued by the brief book talk he gave me in 

the teacher’s work room. I found myself immersed in the book and had 

to combat the desire to keep a perfect edition, free of marks, to lend to 

someone else. My book lender’s vision of a clean copy acquiesced to the 

deep seeded teacher inside me: I ended up making notes throughout 

the book. My brain constantly connected to poems, short stories, 

informational topics, and movies that I think will entice my students 

to discuss a variety of current issues.  

The book made me think about ​Tuck Everlasting​ and the 

discussions I have had in the past with former students about the pros 

and cons of immortality. The book also brought to my mind the recent 

death of my momma. After receiving a phone call from my brother 

telling me of her stroke, I jumped in my car and headed south. As the 

five hundred miles flew by me on the drive home to South Mississippi, 

I begged God not to let her die. ​Within a matter of five days and a 

strange turn of events, I would find myself, ironically on Mother’s 

Day, begging God to receive her into the arms of Jesus and give her 

peace. ​In the midst of my sorrow, I distinctly heard God’s voice 

challenge me with “You either believe Me or you don’t. Which is it going 

to be?” I decided I did. That chord was struck again in the book 

where a woman being gleaned wants to know “what’s next?” The Scythe 

gleans the woman immediately because in spite of being wise and 

experienced, she had no answer for the woman nor for herself. The 

lady’s question continued to burden the Scythe years afterward. There 

is another place when a woman sought out a Scythe to be gleaned 

because she was “done with life.” My mother frequently mentioned how 

tired and how much pain her body was in before she died. So, this book 

really resonated with me not only for the personal connections but 

also for its classroom applications, which I tried to focus on in my 

presentation.   

I began by researching (ahem, Googling) Neal Shusterman. I 

discovered he wrote the book after the death of a relative when he, too, 

was contemplating how it would be if his loved one continued to live. 

Right away, I loved his rawness of emotion. After downloading an 

image of the book to use in the presentation, I was faced with 

downsizing and transferring my book notes into a five minute 

presentation. I identify with Jonathan when he said he had to retape 

his book talk because it was over ten minutes. Mine was much longer 

too. I taped the Screencastify five times and started those over at 

least three times during the process. The next to last recording was 
better than my final presentation except for the neighbor’s dogs barking 

up a storm in the background. 

For my first recording, I used the webcam. The one thing worse 

than hearing my voice on tape is watching a video of me. I could not 

reconcile myself with that travesty, so the next few attempts were 

audio only. I was glad to see several different formats in the 

discussion board. Delving into a project when you are not sure if you 

are getting to the heart of the assignment or if your plan aligns with 

what the rest of your cohort is doing can be intimidating, even at my 

age.  

I decided on the target audience of teachers because I think the 

book and related articles can stimulate phenomenal class discussion 

and research. I wanted to give teachers easy ideas to integrate right 

away, so I included quotes that could directly link to informational 

articles. Teachers can have articles in hand, ready to use for 

discussion and research, when the issues arise in the book. Of course, 

the book does not have to be paired with any other text. I included a 

few quotes that I thought could springboard vibrant class 

conversation for teachers who do not want to pair texts. In suggesting 

these ideas in my book talk, I sought to recommend a book that fellow 

colleagues would feel worthy of the time to read and use in class. 
 I was pleased to read the posts. Jonathan’s posts are typically 

well balanced and deep, often humorous, and make me think about 

things differently. It is validating to know he might be interested in 

my book choice. Leigh alleviated one of my concerns about the flow of 

the presentation. In my attempt to not give anything away, I was 

concerned that I left gaping holes. I appreciate her twenty years of 

experience in middle school and consider her comments as vetting. I 

also like that she is familiar with the same tools as I am--Newsela, 

Ted Talks, and Commonlit. Kevin and I are county colleagues, so I 

always look forward to his comments. He reaffirmed how the 

Hawking quote aligns with current events. Next, Hillary provided 

insight on the background information. She said, “I think sometimes 

there's a perception that these novels are not quite ‘worthy’ of deep 

classroom discussion. Your book talk really disproves this.” I know 

first hand that other high school teachers focus on a classic canon, so 

to hear another teacher restate the need for this literature is 

refreshing. Finally, Leah mentioned the dystopian quality. I realized 

I did not pitch this book in the dystopian genre, which I probably 

should have discussed. However, her question about the power 

struggle made me think about how the personality traits are 

manipulated by the various authorities. In my response to her, I 

questioned whether power changes a person’s personality or enhances 

what was there all along. 

All in all, preparing a book talk for fellow teachers and peers 

was challenging. I wanted it to be fun and engaging but would have 

preferred not having to record it. The process made me realize what 

students would have to consciously and unconsciously solve if they 

were to complete a similar task and which elements may provoke 

discomfort. Finally, the book talk prompted me to consider the 

different ways people approach text and the passages they find 

relative.