ADVENTURES OF MR. MAXIMILLIAN BACCHUS & HIS TRAVELLING CIRCUS

Long before his turn to horror writing, a teenaged Barker wrote this fanciful tale with nary a hint of the darker side. The episodic story chronicles the journey of Bacchus and his eccentric troupe, which includes a signing crocodile and speaking orangutan. Traveling in their Renaissance-era painted caravan, they wend their way to Xanadu, to perform before Kublai Khan. Bruce Donnelly’s appropriately young-sounding voice politely recites these stories with little dramatic inflection. With Donnelly’s light, gentle delivery, the listener pictures the 17-year-old author of the book reading it aloud as a bedtime story. With an innocence and fantasy reminiscent of Baum’s Oz stories, these adventures will excite the imagination of young listeners. F.T. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2012]