THE GIRL IN THE WELL IS ME

Eleven-year-old Kammie falls down a narrow well shaft and has to rely on the class mean girls to go for help. Narrator Michele O. Medlin expertly renders the girl's thoughts as they transition from mad to scared to resigned while she mulls over her possible death and the events that have taken her family from an upper-middle-class New Jersey community to a trailer park in "Nowheresville," Texas. Medlin's voice sounds believably young, and she realistically captures Kammie’s wide range of emotions, avoiding melodrama and firmly locking listeners' attention on her predicament. This potentially dark tale is lightened by Kammie’s sense of humor and imagination. At one point, for example, she imagines she's visited by a French-speaking coyote. Perfect for family listening. C.B.L. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2016]