Encyclopedia Brown by Donald J. Sobol

My reader and Facebook list multiple postings about the passing of Donald J. Sobol, creator of the Encyclopedia Brown mysteries for kids. I read these as a kid and my son enjoys them as well. We took off on a 2.5 week cross-country family vacation last month and one of the books on CD my son picked out was a collection of Encyclopedia Brown mysteries. (the Cracks the Case pictured)

They were so. much. fun.

The stories pause at the end where you, the reader, are asked what you think happened. We all took turns guessing and some of them were not that straight forward.

It made for a fun day, driving through Kansas and solving mysteries with my son. Thanks, Mr. Sobol.

Audiobooks: A Drowned Maiden's Hair & The Red Blazer Girls

My first audiobook of 2010 was 2007's recording of A Drowned Maiden's Hair: A Melodrama by Laura Amy Schlitz. In anticipation of the author's new book for 2010 (The Night Fairy) I remembered I had wanted to read this one.


Alma Cuervo gives a fine performance as the reader. I love the complex and rich characters, the melodrama, the seances, and Maud. A great, suspenseful read for 8-12 year olds. Maud is a voracious reader and there are a number of turn-of-the-century (20th century that is) works mentioned, especially those featuring orphans who overcome. This story was a nice send up to those classics and I appreciated the author's nod to them. I cannot imagine a young reader not getting swept up in this deliciously gothic story. Thumbs up.

I'm almost finished with The Red Blazer Girls: the Ring of Racamadour By Michael Beil and I am loving it! It is a 2010 Texas Lone Star Reading List title which means it will get all the exposure it deserves as every middle school & public library in the state will think about purchasing it. Tai Alexandra Ricci's gives a solid performance with her pitch-perfect girl voices. But I have to hand it to (private girls' school) teacher Michael Beil for his amazing grasp of the preteen girl in all her over-the-top emotional wonderfulness. Sophie is spot-on. Love her. He must be one amazing teacher.


My one concern for the audio is that the puzzles the girls work on can be a challenge to imagine by the descriptions alone. I'm sure there are plenty of 10 year olds who know geometry far better than me, but I kept thinking it might be confusing to someone who has never figured out the Pythagorean Theorem before. Even still, put this on your booklist now. Hooray for mysteries! Hooray for the sequel! Random House, please have ARCs at TLA next month. Thanks!

Audiobooks or Audio Books

This year I listened to more audiobooks than I ever have. I've been trying to listen to CDs of books that I missed, namely past award winners and those that are perpetually on my TBR pile. YALSA has a new audio book committee (Odyssey) plus the Amazing Audiobooks list, and the industry group has The Audies. (this just in via Fuse #8 - the Grammy's spoken word category!)I have wondered what they do, how they judge what is a really good audio book. I think that after this year of listening I have some idea.

Take for instance the book I'm listening to now. The Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd. I'm such a fan of her stories. This one is another supernatural thriller, but... I didn't realize the main character, Fergus, is 18. She makes him sound like he's 12. I couldn't figure out why he was so obsessed with college exams when he's so young. Now that I know, it's irritating. I have 3 CDs left and it's the strength of the story that's keeping me going. I'm amazed the producers let that happen.

This brings me to the Neil Gaiman NPR story on audio books as reading. He interviews David Sedaris who hates hates hates when readers use voices for characters. At first I thought, that's true. But then some of my favorites do use voices well, like the Tiffany Aching series read by Stephen Briggs.

Books I've listened to this year:

Scat by Carl Hiaasen read by Ed Asner
Ed Asner? Yes he does different voices and his pre-teen Latina Marta hit my funny bone. I know people who hated this reading. We'll have to wait to see what the Grammy's think. Also, I love the audio coming out the same day as the book. Good plan, producers. Let's do more of that.

Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman read by Joel Johnstone
I listened to this classic on cassette, baby. Old school. And by the 3rd side I realized that it was so so familiar. Because I did listen to it 2 years ago.

The stories about Maine trilogy:

1. The Canning Season by Polly Horvath read by Julie Dretzin
2. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt read by Joel Johnstone
3. Madapple by Christina Meldrum read by Kirsten Potter
If you're going to dare this book, which if it were in bound form I would have chucked against the wall several times so instead I yelled "Arggh!!" in my car like a lunatic, check out the audio. I wouldn't have pronounced the names correctly at all.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt read by Sam Freed

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz read by a full cast
Hello, audiobook perfection

Kit's Wilderness by David Almond read by Charles Keating
Wow, this book was nothing like I thought it was going to be.

So B. It by Sarah Weeks read by Cherry Jones

Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher read by Joel Johnstone and Debra Wiseman
Seeing that the book is a guy listening to a recording, worked really well as an audio. And Joel Johnstone is a great reader. If he's reading, I want to listen.

In this advanced day and age and all there are several ways to listen to books. I have not ventured MP3, downloadable or Playaways. I listen in my car on CD and sometimes on cassette if that's my only option.