DON'T YOU DARE READ THIS, MRS. DUNPHREY

Tish's assignment in her sophomore English class is to write in a journal at least twice each week. Any entry can be marked "do not read," and Tish's entries are mostly forbidden to the teacher as she writes about the disintegration of her family. She begins with her often absent and abusive father leaving for good, her mother leaving to find her husband, and her own desperate attempts to support herself and take care of her 8-year-old brother. Finally, Tish's last entry begs Mrs. Dunphrey to read the entire journal and help her. Bresnahan's performance is outstanding; not only is she persuasive as a teenage girl, with a light, young voice, but she manages to strike just the right note as she reads the entries. With books that are written in diary or journal form, which tend to be more introspective than action-packed, it's always a challenge to inject the narration with enough drama to keep the listener's interest. This interpretation is especially effective and succeeds better in audio format than in print. S.S.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB 98]