THE AMBER CAT

Reader Nigel Lambert, veteran British star of children's audiobooks, seems to find this story delicious. He rolls each character off his tongue with endearing glee and does the narration with equal and effortless aplomb. His children's voices--there are eight or nine, and a few adults, too--are slightly high, sometimes rapid, always well delineated. The story involves the time-traveling ghost of a little girl, but the reader is scarcely aware of that; there's no ghoulish horror here. It is the clean mythos of the 11-year-old that McKay describes so well and Lambert reflects so melodiously. Both are expressive, uncloying, delightful. D.W. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: JAN 98]