The Books of Elsewhere: The Shadows (book 1) by Jacqueline West. Penguin Audio, 2010. Read by Lexie Friedel.Audience: 3rd-5th grade
My Rating: 2.5* of 5
Summary: When eleven-year-old Olive moves into the crumbling old mansion on Linden Street, she's right to think there's something weird about the place, especially the walls covered in creepy antique paintings. But when she finds a pair of old-fashioned glasses in a dusty drawer, she discovers she can travel inside these paintings to Elsewhere, a world that's eerily sinister.
Comments: Well voiced by pip-squeakish Friedel. Sluggish and uneven for me, but with some original fantasy concepts that worked well. The painting element allows for wonderful imagery that is easily visualized by the listener. I didn't connect with the protagonist, Olive, nor her relationship with Morton, the foil character. However, the guardians of the house--three outlandish cats--provided much needed levity. The ending is handled in exciting fashion, though we were not left on much of a cliff to propel listeners into a second book.
Read-Alikes: Blubonnet list, 2011-2012Summary: When eleven-year-old Olive moves into the crumbling old mansion on Linden Street, she's right to think there's something weird about the place, especially the walls covered in creepy antique paintings. But when she finds a pair of old-fashioned glasses in a dusty drawer, she discovers she can travel inside these paintings to Elsewhere, a world that's eerily sinister.
Comments: Well voiced by pip-squeakish Friedel. Sluggish and uneven for me, but with some original fantasy concepts that worked well. The painting element allows for wonderful imagery that is easily visualized by the listener. I didn't connect with the protagonist, Olive, nor her relationship with Morton, the foil character. However, the guardians of the house--three outlandish cats--provided much needed levity. The ending is handled in exciting fashion, though we were not left on much of a cliff to propel listeners into a second book.
Read-Alikes: Coraline by Gaiman
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