"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Monday, February 20, 2012

Review: Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann


Kendall, an OCD teen, lives on a farm in Cryer's Cross, Montana across the road from Nico, her best friend, and attends a one-room school house with 23 other students from the area. It seems that where nothing ever happens in Cryer's Cross, until one day a girl goes missing without a trace. Kendall and the whole community spend days looking for her to no avail. When Nico goes missing months later, Kendall knows that it is more than a coincidence. She seems to be the only person that notices that both Nico and the other girl sat in the exact same desk at school. Can she find her friends before it is too late? Or will Kendall become the next victim and disappear herself?

Typically I avoid this type of book since horror/suspense offerings scare me. However, listening to the audiobook Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann, read by Julia Whelan, was a very enjoyable experience, And I was only a little frightened by it. I found my way to the audio version of this book because a blogging friend, Sue Jackson at Great Books for Kids and Teens, said that she and her family enjoyed the book in this format and I trust her recommendations. I am always looking for good audiobooks. So many narrators of YA novels read in a whiny teenager voice. Ugh. I honestly have enough of that in my real life. But with this book Julia Whelan read with a clear and decisive voice that helped build the tension of the mystery and created a sympathetic tone toward Kendall and her predicament. I enjoyed it a lot and now I recommend it to you.

2 comments:

  1. "So many narrators of YA novels read in a whiny teenager voice. Ugh. I honestly have enough of that in my real life." hahahahahahaha - As a teacher myself, these lines had me cracking up laughing :) And I really do agree about YA audiobooks - I almost never listen to them b/c the fake teenager voice just drives me bananas! I'm listening to Delirium right now, and it has the same narrator as Sarah Dessen's Along for the Ride. I really liked her voice the first time around, but now I'm struggling b/c, for me, that voice is just 100% Auden. Audiobooks are a tricky thing...

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  2. I am so not good with scary books and I think the audio would make it even scarier. I do think about reading this one when I see it on the shelves though

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