THE DARK PORTAL

Imparting life to talking mice, rats, bats, and cats would present a challenge to any narrator, but Roe Kendall manages the job with skill and imagination. A group of mice lives in an abandoned house, where they create a comfortable community for themselves, staying purposefully away from “The Grille,” which leads to the sewers, the land of their enemies, the rats. All is well until Albert Brown wanders through the sewer grille, and his children and friends are compelled to follow, despite dire warnings about the kingdom below. Bats in the attic offer fortune-telling services, and a ship mouse joins the search for the missing neighbors. Roe Kendall gives each creature a distinctive voice. Her performance facilitates the story’s required suspension of disbelief. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 03]