DEAD END IN NORVELT

Looking for a great audiobook for boys? This is it. Further blurring the line between fact and fiction in this autobiographical novel, author Jack Gantos narrates himself, sharing the 1962 summer adventures of his eponymous hero as he navigates adolescence and a dying town caught between two eras. (His mom and his neighbor want to honor the vision of town founder Eleanor Roosevelt; his dad warns of "Commies.") History is a theme throughout, and so is death: Jack accompanies elderly Miss Volker on her duties as medical examiner and types up the obituaries she dictates. The story is a little odd and a lot funny. Gantos's delivery is dry and wry, and even when characters don't get distinctive voices, the action and emotion are utterly clear. A gem. J.M.D. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2011]