Grade 2-4-Actor Simon Callow tackles one of Roald Dahl's most gruesome stories (Puffin, pap. 1998) with relish in this gleefully naughty audiobook. Mr. and Mrs. Twit are two of the most disgusting, nasty, and horrid characters in children's literature, from their repulsive looks (the story opens...
Adrian Mole faces the same agonies which life sets before most adolescents: troubles with girls, school, parents, and an uncaring world. The difference, though, between young Master Mole and his peers is that this British lad keeps a diary -- an earnest chronicle of longing and disaster that has...
Grade 7-9 The nature of the beast is such that when deprived of physical and emotional sustenance, it turns wild. To survive, the Haverston beast is killing domestic animals from farms near a town which is being destroyed by unemployment when the local mill is shut down. The story is told by Billy,...
An excellent job. The plot moves smoothly with nuggets of suspense dropped in just often enough. Then there's the smart aleck and realistic teenage narrator, with her desperate desire to fit in. Last is the authentic use of local color, some genuine laughs, reasonably thorough character devel...
Dashing, proud and brave, Uncle Peder had never made so fine a horse before The little wooden horse loves Uncle Peder like a father and hopes never to leave him. Then the toymaker falls upon hard times, the little wooden horse must go out into the world to seek his fortune. But whether he's working...
When poor James Henry Trotter loses his parents in a horrible rhinoceros accident, he is forced to live with his two wicked aunts, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker. After three years he becomes "the saddest and loneliest boy you could find." Then one day, a wizened old man in a dark-green suit gives...
Grade 2-4-Richard E. Grant performs this reading of Roald Dahl's tale (Puffin, pap. 1998) with an appropriately British accent. Fully-voiced, the production is expressive and pleasing, making a great story an even better read-aloud. As George seeks a cure for his grandmother's grumpiness, his...
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, along with Roald Dahl's other tales for younger readers, make him a true star of children's literature. Dahl seems to know just how far to go with his oddball fantasies; in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, for...
Grade 4-7-Fans of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda will be entranced by actor Derek Jacobi's amusing and captivating narration of the formative years of Dahl's life. Listening to the boyhood antics of this world famous and best-selling author...
