TIMOTHY OF THE CAY

This is a good example of a book that gains greatly from even a modest audio production. The story of a young white boy's moving friendship with an old black Virgin Islander during WWII is set largely in St. Thomas. There's no way a child reading to himself would be able to imagine the delightful, lilting rhythms and unique pronunciations of that local dialect. Jeff Woodman makes an otherwise unexceptional and unadorned reading sparkle with his characterizations of the aged Timothy and other islanders, this despite Woodman being, apparently, neither old nor black. A.M. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: JAN 95]