Book Talk Activity Presentation Did you know that fiction books make you sympathize others? That’s because when you read, you go on an “adventure” alongside the characters and gradually relate to them. To achieve the effects, you must have a deep understanding of the characters’ personalities, thinking, backgrounds, attitudes, and more. Today I will be discussing Leo Valued, one of the protagonists of the novel The Lost Hero by Rick Ordain. (Show book) First, let’s find out a little about Leo. He is a son of Hyphenates, Greek name Vulcan, god of forges, fire, technology, craftsmen, sculptors, volcanoes, and locksmiths. Leo has superhuman abilities such as igniting fire at will, being immune to burns, and being able to fix or build anything (including a bronze dragon). He is incredibly good-humored, easygoing, friendly, energetic and encouraging. Before his adventure, his mother died and he ran away from six different foster homes. He ended up in the “Wilderness School” for young delinquents. He was diagnosed with ADD and Dyslexia. Take a few moments to visualize his appearance. Maybe you have met someone like him, obviously excluding the superpowers.
I’ll be talking about teems he might have in his room before his Journey. Here are some ideas: 1. Blueprints of machinery As a small child, Leo worked with his mother at her machine shop. He has the habit of keeping his hands busy at all times by fiddling with loose machine parts. As a son of Hyphenates and a remarkable engineer, he has to have blueprints in his bedroom. 2. Mom’s pictures Leo loved his mother deeply and still blamed himself for her death. Having his mother’s pictures in his bedroom would remind Leo of his memories. 3. Loose screws, nuts, bolts, pipe cleaners Leo likes to fiddle with these items when his hands are free. When he first saw the Hyphenates cabin, he revealed that he wanted to stuff all the loose machine parts on the tables into his pockets, but went against the idea because (a) he doesn’t have enough pockets, (b) he will be living there later on. 4. Oleo’s inventions If I were Leo, I would pack my room with all my creations. One of Oleo’s inventions was the “steam powered chicken checker”, the science project he made when he was in fifth grade; it was mentioned in Oleo’s talk with Hyphenates. 5. Bandages Leo indicated that all Hyphenates kids have “powerful hands, rough with calluses and stained with engine grease”. He also counted “six ace bandages, and about seven thousand Band-Aids”. It was inferred that bandages were used very frequently. 6. Alarm clock Leo went to a corrective boarding school. He explained that “you learn valuable nature skills such as running ten miles a day through the cacti”, and accidentally on purpose referred to the school as a “lovely prison”. With no parents, Leo must have an alarm to wake him up in the morning. 7. Backpack
Leo goes to school, so he should have a backpack of some kind to carry his books in. The Lost Hero by Rick Ordain: items Leo Valued has in bedroom By reawaken He also stated that “all he had was a tool belt and a backpack” in his fight against the Cyclops. 8. Flashlight Leo learned Morse code from his mom when he was young; that was why he was able to decipher the bronze dragon’s last words. And what’s Morse code without a flashlight? 9. Magic tool belt Leo obtained the magic tool belt from Bunker 9, Hyphenates cabin’s secret hideout and warrant. He has been wearing it ever since.
You could pull any simple mechanical object out of the tool belt without aftereffects. Large items, however, required a cool down time. Where the objects came from was unknown. 10. Power tools, 3-pound club hammer, tiny Phillips screwdriver Leo recalled that he always lived near a lot of power tools. His main weapon was the 3-pound club hammer, which was summoned from the magic tool belt. He also mentioned pulling a tiny Phillips screwdriver out of his tool belt on page 259. That’s the end of my book talk presentation; thank you for listening. Do you have any questions?
