THE FRIENDS

"What do people look like when they die?" Kiwabe wonders. His friends, Kiyama and Yamashita, are repulsed but intrigued at the question, and all three decide to spy on a lonely old man to wait for him to die. Oddly, however, the old man turns the tables. He isn't quite ready to die. Instead he draws all four of them into an adventure that helps all come a little closer to life. Reader Jeff Woodman's gentle, good-natured voice is perfect for the earnest, young narrator, Kiyama, as well as for the wise old man, whose wit and tricks make the narrative seem to sparkle. Woodman's reading is alert with the emerging vitality of the old man and the sheer joy of youth that swims here just below the surface. If death is the pool they all start to swim in, it's life that breaks the surface and sparkles like jewels in the sun. P.E.F. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 98]