JACOB TWO-TWO AND THE DINOSAUR

[Editor's Note: The following is a combined review with JACOB TWO-TWO MEETS THE HOODED FANG.]--The great Canadian author--best known for THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ and JOSHUA THEN AND NOW--penned three juvenile novels featuring a neglected 6-year-old who says everything twice. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has done a marvelous job producing full-cast dramatizations of the first two of these novels. Narrated by Stephanie Morganstern, and featuring Jacob Daniel Tierney as Jacob, JACOB TWO-TWO AND THE DINOSAUR follows Jacob as he befriends a pet diplodocus (played by Vlasta Vrana) whom he must protect from the violent abuses of adult society. The story is simultaneously funny and touching, and always offbeat. In JACOB TWO-TWO MEETS THE HOODED FANG, the stammering 6-year-old is sent to prison at Slimer's Isle, ruled over by an evil pro-wrestler, the Hooded Fang. The story is simultaneously funny and touching, and always offbeat. These CBC productions, filled with music, sound effects, and dozens of voices, are top-top-notch. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 04]