THE COBRA'S SONG

Narrator Reena Dutt brings Geetanjali's fears to life when the fifth grader loses her courage just when she needs it most: A cobra-person from Hindu lore is living next door and wants to turn everyone in her Michigan town into a snake! Dutt modulates her characterizations deftly, voicing Geetanjali and her friends with Midwestern accents, Geetanjali's immigrant parents with distinctly South Asian inflections, and her grandmother, visiting from the subcontinent, with a stronger Indian accent. Listeners unaccustomed to Marathi and other South Asian languages will be grateful for Dutt's effortless enunciation of "ichchhadhari naagin"--but possibly thrown from time to time as "Aai," the Marathi word for "Mom," sounds very much like "I." All listeners will cheer, however, as Geetanjali finds her voice at last. V.S. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2023]