Audiobook roundup

Here's what I've been listening to lately:

There's A Boy in the Girls' Bathroom by Louis Sachar.  I will always have a special space in my heart for Sachar, filled with bottlecaps.  This is an old one I never read.  I guess I assumed it would be a comedy based on the cover.  Boy, was I wrong!  It's an insightful, multi-layered look at the life of a bully.  Not that there weren't funny bits, but really, I got choked up more than once.  

Powers by Ursula LeGuin.  Another author I'm fond of, and of course I knew I would love this one.   The depth of her world-building is truly fabulous.  I'm only a third of the way in, though, since it's quite long compared to the middle grade stuff I usually listen to.

The 100-Year-Old Secret by Tracy Barrett.  Now I have three art theft mysteries to recommend!  (Masterpiece and Chasing Vermeer - and its sequels - are the other two.)  This one is, unfortunately, about a fake artist, so it doesn't carry the same resonance as the other two books.  It's also written for a younger audience and there isn't such a sense of mortal peril for the investigators, but I still enjoyed it.

Nation by Terry Pratchett.  Not as laugh-out-loud funny as his Discworld series, but definitely full of Pratchett moments.  A great survival, clash-of-cultures story.  I really liked the reader.

Homer Price by Robert McCloskey.  I was hoping this would have aged more gracefully, but sadly, I barely cracked a smile.  I don't think I'll be recommending this one.

Audio: Alvin Ho #1 and #2 by Lenore Look

I was reading Heavy Medal back issues about last year's Mock Newbery, and I was captured by their review of Alvin Ho:

Funny. Multiculturalism/diversity doesn't stick out, it's just there. Funny. Episodic chapters--each one a complete narrative arc--serve a young audience that's still learning to read novels. Funny. Each chapter builds, realisitically if only slightly, on the theme of overcoming fears. Funny. Funny. Funny. Funny. Funny. Funny. 

These are books I've been pooh-poohing for months now, on the grounds that middle grade readers don't want to read about a kid who's 2-4 years younger than them.  Junie B. notwithstanding, this is something that is simply not done by 8-10 year olds.  And yet, here I sit reading review after review of how great these books are.  So I sigh, and put the audiobook on hold.  Maybe it'll be worth a look.

Good thing I wasn't taking any sips of water on my way to work this morning, or I suspect they would have been spewed all over my dashboard.  A students'-eye-view of me on my way into the building would have seen me literally falling all over myself laughing.  How often do I do this?  Hardly ever.  (For example, I was listening to Homer Price last night, and that merited scarcely a weak smile.)  Lenore Look presents Alvin's day at school and at home in these flighty little vignettes that left me shaking my head and giggling all morning.

I will admit that a good portion of my enjoyment came from the reader, eleven-year-old Everette Plen (what a great name).  He is funny funny funny.  And oh my gosh, doesn't he just look like his voice?  There is nothing like listening to young Mr. Plen cursing in Shakespearian English.

I don't think book two is quite as creative and wonderful as the first, but I'm kinda feeling it as a continuation of book one, so perhaps it doesn't matter.  I was definitely looking forward to more.

Lenore Look, you have another convert!  I will never again discount a book because of the age of its main character. 

Awesomeness: 8 - big kudos for a fabulous task accomplished - put on your to-read pile soon

Wordsmithing: 8 - quirky and funny

Personages: 8 - wow, a 2nd grader with a missing eye and a limp!  Awesome

Mesmerizitude: 8 - I could listen to Everette Plen chirp all day