THE NEST

Narrator Gibson Frazier’s gentle voice is well suited to this middle-grade tale of magical realism. Steve’s new baby brother is very ill, his parents are distracted, and a group of wasps is building a nest on the side of his house. When he begins communicating with the wasp queen in his dreams, Steve thinks he has found a fix for all his family’s troubles. But magical bargains rarely work out. Frazier’s tone fully captures Steve’s anxiety, and he performs in a sweetly poisonous voice for the wasp queen. Frazier’s narration will make listeners worry about the baby, and Steve. Listeners will be unable to turn this off until they hear how it all comes out. G.D. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2015]