THE GLORIOUS ADVENTURES OF THE SUNSHINE QUEEN

Lorna Raver gives a warmly avuncular performance of Geraldine McCaughrean's novel, redolent of 1800s Americana. The large and lively cast of good-hearted characters (and some memorable baddies) embarks on improbable adventures on a derelict steamship drifting down the Missouri River. Raver doesn’t miss an opportunity to enhance the book’s humor—and there’s plenty of it, in the wacky situations the SUNSHINE QUEEN’s crew members get themselves into and the wild schemes they concoct, and in McCaughrean’s trademark clever wordplay. Raver does a funny, flawless 14-year-old troublemaker of a boy, and even if such a large cast means that the voices aren’t always as differentiated as they could be, it hardly matters. Listeners will have great fun. J.M.D. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2012]