Washington Post Book Reviews
For You
Tuesday March 29, 2011
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AUDIO BOOKS
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Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers
"THE SECRET GARDEN"
By Frances Hodgson Burnett (Listening Library, unabridged, 8 1/2 hours, 7 CDs, $37; audible.com download, $25)
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Frances Hodgson Burnett's "The Secret Garden," not only one of the greatest children's novels ever written, but also one of the most recorded. At least seven unabridged versions are available, the most recent being a fine one narrated by Finola Hughes. This story of two spoiled, crabbed and crabby children; a bucolic young friend; an old pensioner; an English robin; and a secret realm of burgeoning nature draws on deep currents of comforting and exhilarating fantasy. Hughes' English-accented voice has a pleasantly low register for the general narration, and she carries off the several characters who have Yorkshire accents adeptly and with warmth and decorum. As for the children, they possess the voices of youth, becoming increasingly invigorated by their friendship and Nature -- to say nothing of the "richly frothed new milk," oat cakes, heather honey and clotted cream that become their diet.
"YOUNG FREDLE"
By Cynthia Voigt (Listening Library, unabridged, 6 1/4 hours, 5 CDs, $34.; audible.com download, $23.80)
Thanks to his over-abundant curiosity and complications involving a Peppermint Pattie, Fredle, a young kitchen mouse, ends up alone and confused in the perilous outdoors. His adventures are many, and his ponderings on the nature of things are enchantingly skewed by his tininess. Wendy Carter reads the descriptive passages in a sweet, compassionate voice at a pace that is easy to follow. She takes on the various characters whom Fredle meets in his travels with a great deal of energy, injecting perhaps more obnoxiousness into the voices of some hostile animals than is strictly necessary. (A know-it-all field mouse and a belligerent raccoon -- country creatures both -- have somehow acquired blaring "Joisey-style" accents.) On the other hand, Carter gives a malevolent barn snake a slithering underlay of hiss that is pleasantly chilling, and she insinuates friendly, bouncing eagerness into the voice of a young female dog, a characterization that is dogginess itself.
"DOCTOR DE SOTO"
Written and illustrated by William Steig (Unabridged, 15 minutes, Macmillan Young Listeners, 1 CD, $9.99)
This package includes a paperback edition of William Steig's marvelous picture book and a CD recording that consists of a first version read straight through, followed by a second with a bell signaling when to turn the pages. Stanley Tucci reads this engagingly wry story about a mouse who is a dentist; his wife, his assistant; and a fox, a pitiable fellow with a toothache, whom they agree to treat despite their rule against accepting mouse eaters. Tucci's pleasant American voice conveys just a hint of skepticism about the wisdom of this undertaking and projects the personalities of the three animals: the doctor, conscientious and shrewd; his wife, helpful and alert; and the fox, not to be trusted. ("On his way home he wondered if it would be shabby of him to eat the De Sotos when the job was done.")
The couple's triumph is excellently summed up in the fox's last line, delivered with mouth glued shut and rendered by Tucci in muffled tones of unsuccessful dignity: "Frank oo berry mush."
"FAVOURITE POEMS FOR CHILDREN"
(Naxos, 1 1/4 hour, 1 CD, $14.98, download from www.naxosaudiobooks.com, $10)
The 39 poems here are classics of imagination and whimsy, alive with the great and mysterious power that language exercises in -- and over -- childhood. With a couple of exceptions, the poets are British, and their verses are suffused with the golden aura of childhood's halcyon days. All but one of the nine readers here are professional actors. The poems range in mood from the stirring potency of William Blake's "The Tyger," magnificently read by Timothy West, to the inspired high jinks of Lewis Carroll's and Edward Lear's nonsense poems, and the linguistic confusion of Laura Richards' "Eletelephony." There are adventuresome pieces, such as "The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens," read with intoxicating Scots brio by Anton Lesser, and many tales of busy doings. Interspersed throughout are passages of classical music. This is a recording for your permanent collection.
Katherine Powers regularly reviews audio books for The Washington Post Book World.
Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
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NOVELS FROM CHILDREN AND TEENS
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Reviewed by Mary Quattlebaum
"SMALL PERSONS WITH WINGS"
By Ellen Booraem. Dial. $16.99, ages 10-14
Taunted by classmates for an alleged fairy sighting, Mellie Turpin, 13, has a chance to ditch her dorky reputation when her parents inherit a rickety inn in another town. But -- surprise! -- her new home brims with hundreds of "Small Persons with Wings," who demand her help in breaking a pact that curbs their natural magic.
What's a mortal to do? Familiar tropes get fresh, funny play in this sprightly tale. On the way to a delightful "ever after," Mellie is turned into a giant frog, the boy next door proves to be a tech-savvy Prince Charming, and sometimes even fairies prefer an electric, bread-crisping "toadster" to their own ethereal magic.
"YOU KILLED WESLEY PAYNE"
By Sean Beaudoin. Little, Brown. $16.99, ages 12 and up
Cliques rule the school at Salt River High, as teen private-eye Dalton Rev discovers when investigating the murder of nice-guy Wesley Payne. Wesley kept everything in the school balanced, but without him the Balls, Pinker Caskets, Euclidians and Sis Boom Bahs (also known, respectively, as jocks, rockers, brainiacs and cheerleaders) vie for power. In this clever spoof of the detective genre, Dalton may appear not so much hard-boiled as hilariously scrambled as he consults his favorite pulp novels for tips. He is helped and hindered by a siren in thigh-high boots and a pudgy sidekick named Mole. Though his cute client (also Wesley's sister) tempts him to drop the "tough-guy posturing," Dalton sticks with the case through all its plot-twisty turns, right to the heart-jolting end.
"FIVE FLAVORS OF DUMB"
By Antony John. Dial. $16.99, ages 12 and up
Piper may be deaf, but she knows what Dumb needs: a manager who can handle the selfish, shy and seething members of a Seattle high school band with that name. Piper gets the job -- a boon because she needs something, too: her cut of the money from Dumb's gigs to help pay for college next year. This smart, lively novel captures the downs and ups of young rock and rollers -- a recording session gone tunelessly wrong, the sheer animal energy of a concert -- and charts Piper's deepening friendship with the band's geeky-cool drummer, Ed Chen. Piper deflects the prejudice of others with sly humor but must confront her own against lip-pierced Tash and pretty Kallie, the two girl guitarists. When the bombastic front man causes trouble, Piper takes charge, rocking this spirited coming-of-age story to a surprising close.
"BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY"
By Ruta Sepetys. Philomel. $17.99, ages 12 and up
Wrenched from comfortable homes, Lina Vilkas, 15, and her mother, younger brother and a few neighbors on "the list" are transported to a barren, frozen land. Lina, a talented artist, chronicles their suffering on scraps of paper and cloth and smuggles the notes out ... but help never comes. Her father has been imprisoned, and the larger world busies itself with a distant war.
Though this may sound like the latest dystopian novel, Lina's story actually takes place in 1941, against the backdrop of Josef Stalin's "cleansing" of the Baltic States. To evoke the horrors and hope of this time in Siberia, author Ruta Sepetys interviewed her Lithuanian relatives and many other deportees. Her prose is restrained and powerful, as unadorned as the landscape in which her characters struggle to survive. In this way, the occasional metaphors and descriptions shine more brightly, especially those involving a kind boy who, at various times, steals food from the guards for the sick, gives Lina a birthday gift and softly kisses her. Few books are beautifully written, fewer still are important; this novel is both.
"HURRICANE DANCERS"
By Margarita Engle. Henry Holt. $16.99, ages 12 and up
Three main characters tell intertwined stories in this skillfully structured novel-in-poems about real-life pirates of the Caribbean. The effect: different versions of historical events rather than one fixed through a particular viewpoint as "the truth." The book opens compellingly in 1510, with Quebrado, an orphan of mixed Indian and Spanish blood, trapped on the pirate ship of brutal Bernardino de Talavera. Also on board as a wounded hostage is the cruel Spanish conquistador, Alonso de Ojeda, a man haunted by feverish visions of the Indians he killed and enslaved. When a hurricane casts them into the sea, each comes to the same island with a different attitude and skills. Quebrado recognizes his former home, with its "moist soil" and "pineapples ... like golden sunlight." But Talavera and Ojeda consider the place hostile and swampy. When the three meet again, the boy, now the one with power, must decide whether to help or harm them. Although Quebrado is fictitious, the others are historical figures, and a note in the back explains their actual fates.
Mary Quattlebaum contributes regularly to The Washingotn Post Book World and teaches in the Vermont College MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Her most recent children's book, "Pirate vs. Pirate," is out this month.
Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
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