IN A BLUE ROOM

It’s time for Alice to go to sleep, and it’s not going very well. She is insisting on a blue room! Each of her mother's enticements is countered with a rejection. Flowers, tea, quilts, bells—all must be blue! Barbara Caruso is masterful at creating the characters, mood, and suspense of this story. She narrates with the calmness of a seasoned mother. As Alice, she is alternately insistent and mollified. Caruso keeps this bedtime drama pleasant, if lengthy. Her pauses and ever-changing pacing underscore the alteration in Alice's mood and the eventual arrival of sleepiness. Caruso's use of silence makes the magnificent final blueness all the more satisfying. A.R. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2009]