AMPHIBIAN

Listeners will love Phin, a 9-year-old who agonizes over The Green Channel’s message of impending environmental devastation. An innocent who suffers from information overload, he’s also dealing with big personal issues. His parents are separated, his mother is dating someone he doesn’t like, and his grandfather recently died. Further, he’s worried about his grandmother, and a bully’s badgering him at school. AND he’s determined to rescue Cuddles, the class tree frog. Anita Roy Dobbs’s storytelling voice is soothing. Her 9-year-old is nicely underplayed, and her character voices are convincing. She makes the conversational exchanges between Phin and his mother sound absolutely real. When, for escape, Phin slips off to draw his imaginary planet, Reull, which is being destroyed by the Gorachs, Dobbs’s performance makes it all fun. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2011]