Just Listening: Audiobooks

By Kathryn Shepler

Aurora School , Oakland

Buckley-Archer, Linda. Gideon the Cutpurse. Audioworks/Simon & Schuster, 2006, unabridged, 11 hours, 30 minutes, gr. 5-9. $39.95, CD ISBN 978-0-7435-555-8-6. Performed by Gerald Doyle.

Adventure and historical fiction are a great mix in this time-travel novel. Peter and Kate accidentally run afoul of a modern day anti-gravity machine and end up in 1763 England. There they are befriended by Gideon Seymour, a thief but honorable man. It’s a great ride as youth and criminals in the 18 th century race through London trying to find the stolen anti-gravity machine while frantic parents and authorities in the 21 st century try to replicate the time travel and recover their children.

Doyle uses wonderful accented voices for the various characters from England and Scotland and the US. He is equally adept at using voices to show their different social classes. The narration is clear and compelling. You can’t stop listening as he pulls you along at a brisk pace through an exciting story.

 

Murdock, Catherine. Dairy Queen. Listening Library, 2006, unabridged, 6 hours, 9 minutes, gr. 7-12. $30.00, CD ISBN 0-7393-3612-6. Performed by Natalie Moore.

D.J. Schwenk decides she is living her life like one of her family’s dairy cows: placid and not in control. This pivotal summer of her 15 th year, she is determined to speak up and take more control of her life. During the summer she coaches popular Brain Nelson in football and awakens her own love of the game. And she learns about the people around her: her brusque father, distracted mother, her unspeaking younger brother and inexplicably distant best friend.

The joy of this novel is watching all these characters grow and change through DJ’s first person voice, so perfectly performed by Natalie Moore. Ms Moore gives DJ the sprightly voice of a teen girl, at turns unaffected, then sarcastic, then poignant. Occasionally, one can hear a faint mid-West/Canadian accent just right for this character – think young Frances McDormand in Fargo coming of age on a dairy farm in Wisconsin.

Reissues Worth Revisiting

Schwartz, Amy. Bea & Mr. Jones. Harcourt, 1982, 2006. $13.95. ISBN 0-15-205811-7.

Except for a different cover illustration and new endpapers, this is page for page the same as the older version. Still timely, this 25 year old story concerns kindergartener Bea, who goes to work in her father’s place, and he goes to school in her place. Both are huge successes (turns out, Bea is a whiz at advertising slogans). The pencil sketch illustrations may seem “old fashioned” to preschoolers used to full color art, but the cartoon-like sketches and the story seem very contemporary in their own way.

Lionni, Leo. A Color of His Own. Knopf, 1975, 2006. $12.95, ISBN 0-375-83697-7.

Although the older version wasn’t available for a side by side comparison, this reissue appears to be the same as the older version. Lionni’s bright watercolor paints on white backgrounds are as contemporary as newer books. The story is also a standout: a chameleon wants a color of his own but doesn’t really achieve that. Instead, he befriends another chameleon and they stay together so at least they will always be the same as each other. Not just a book to teach the concept of colors, but this celebrates friendship.

Alexander, Martha. I’ll Protect You from the Jungle Beasts. Charlesbridge, 1973/2006. $9.95, ISBN 1-57091-677-2.

Taking the original book, Alexander has added colored pencil and watercolor over her original pencil sketch illustrations, to brighten this for a new generation. A pajama clad boy reassures his teddy bear that he won’t get hurt in the forest. As they journey, the bear gets bigger and the boy more frightened and smaller, but all is well by the end of this comforting tale.

Fleischman, Paul. Graven Images: Three Stories. Candlewick, 1982/2006. $16.99, ISBN 076362775-5.

Recipient of the Newbery Honor when it was first published, it hasn’t been in great demand by young readers over these past 25 years. Perhaps this new jacket image and interior illustrations will show kids that these are great, original scary stories – certain to please kids in grades 3 to 6.

The previous version had eerie artwork by Andrew Glass. The new dark gray cover, showing a shadow against a wall, looks a little more sophisticated. Bagram Ibatoulline’s acrylic gouache paintings, just one per story, are reproduced in the appropriately creepy black and white. This is great to recommend to kids who want something like the “Goosebumps” series, although this is more thoughtful and with more surprising twist endings.

Awdry, Reverend W. Thomas the Tank Engine: Story Collection. Random House, 2005. $29.95. ISBN 0-375-83409-5.

Celebrating sixty years, this compilation of fourteen Railway Series picture books is not well suited for libraries, but is a nice gift book. Libraries would be better served by individual editions of the fourteen stories, which are still popular due to the television series that is based on these books.

Originally published in Great Britain from 1945-1960, this looks as if they put the fourteen picture books into one binding; they use the original illustrations by C. Reginald Dalby and John T. Kenney, in the original size. The large size typeface and placement of the illustrations make this a great readaloud to preschoolers, and 2 nd and 3 rd graders can read it like a easy chapter book.

Even though these stories are more than 50 years old, many children like to read about trains, and the connection to the television show also adds appeal. A map of the Island of Sodor, the fictional setting of the stories, appears at the front and back of the book.

Jackson, Kathryn and Bryon. Pirates, Ships, and Sailors: Twenty-four Stories and Poems. Illus. by Gustaf Tenggren. Golden Books, 1950/2006. $14.95, ISBN 0-375-83665-9.

Originally released in 1950, this was probably reissued to capitalize on the popularity of the film series “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Tenggren’s stylized illustrations have a retro appeal, but the stories are too long for younger preschoolers. Also, not enough stories are about pirates! Older kids would prefer Pirateology by William Captain Lubber, (Candlewick 2006), if they are requesting pirate books.

Lattimore, Eleanor Frances. Little Pear and Little Pear and His Friends. Harcourt, 2005. $16.00 each. ISBN: Little Pear 0-15-205496-0. Little Pear and His Friends 0-15-205484-7.

Although these appear to be word-for-word the same texts as the original editions, the book design of these reissues give “Little Pear” a new look. These new versions use a smaller typeface, so the books are shorter in page number if not in length of text. The overall book size is a little smaller, too, with less white space. So the look is less like a transitional fiction book and more like a novel, which is a shame since these are aimed at 2 nd and 3 rd graders.

The interior ink sketches are the originals by Lattimore; they depict an old world China. The cover art is new, with full color paintings of Little Pear and his family.

The older versions seem better suited to the transitional reader, with more white space, a larger typeface, and the larger sized sketches. The jacket art on the newer versions doesn’t convey the old fashioned quality of the text. If you have the originals, I would not replace them with these updates.

Penny Peck, San Leandro Public Library